Someone To Watch Over Me
by KnittingVamp7
Summary: Edward is assigned to guard Bella after a tragedy occurs and her life is in danger. Both haunted by memories that plague them, will they be able to help each other or drive each other insane? AH, OOC, Canon couples, M for future smut/lemons.
1. Prologue

**Ok, kids, here it is, my first fanfic. It's something new and different for me, but I hope you like it anyway. M means mature for a reason. There's a lot of foul language and future smut I intend to have. It'll be in EPOV for a while (I originally intended for it to all be in his POV), but I'll probably switch it up as the situation calls for it. Constructive critcism is a must, and the more reviews I get means the more I write, which (duh) means I'll post more. If you're interested. Songs will usually have a meaning for the chapter, sometimes they might not. Want to know why I chose them? PM me. :) Happy reading!**

**Thanks to my awesome beta feistyyoungbeden over in the Twilight forum on Ravelry. She fixes me so I sound intelligent. lol.**

**Disclaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer. I've been called Stephenie plenty, but that's because some people can't remember my first name. I usually set them straight. Quite verbally.**

(Song: 'Opening' by Philip Glass)

**EPOV:**

I could feel her coming.

There was no way I could hear her coming as I lay on the beach. It was impossible, with the waves crashing against the shore and the damned seagulls making a ruckus, never mind the sand silencing all footsteps from anyone who walked on it. But I could feel her coming, and I was glad.

It was strange, the electricity between us. I'd never felt it with anyone before. I didn't feel it with her until the first time we touched, a polite shaking of hands, but since then the feeling had intensified to the point where we didn't even need to touch to know the other was near. Being apart from her in any context hurt now, but some situations were easier than others to deal with the pain.

I felt her sit next to me and I opened my eyes to watch her tuck her legs beneath her as she faced me, smiling quietly down at me. Her liquid brown eyes were finally free of the sadness and pain I'd seen in them too much in the past months. She was still pale, always was, but it was accentuated by the gray clouds in the sky above. A few strands of her hair had escaped her ponytail and were being whipped around her face. She was fucking lovely, a goddess, and mine, which confused the hell out of me.

"I figured I'd find you here," she murmured, running a comforting hand across my chest before cupping my stubbled cheek. "I should know by now that if your car is in the driveway but you're not in the house, you're always here."

I smiled back at her, running my hand up and down her side while my other hand cushioned my head on the sand. "I didn't mean to worry you. Just needed to think for a bit."

A worry line did crease her pretty forehead, her pretty lips twisting into a slight frown. "I didn't mean to interrupt."

She made to stand, but I gripped her side firmly with my hand, the hand behind my head holding her hand to my face, keeping her next to me. "Don't go," I said softly. "I didn't say it to make you leave. You're fine here." I'd rather have her here than be alone with my thoughts much longer in any case. She smiled again, the worry line not disappearing completely, but she stayed put next to me.

My thoughts weren't entirely unpleasant anymore. I remember a time when they used to be, when all I thought of was the job and how I would make it through each day without going crazy. All I had was my bodyguard job, my partner and friend Jasper, and not much else. I really had no life outside of my job, no hobbies, no family to catch up with, no friends besides Jasper, and I was fine with that. I had enough work to keep me occupied and to keep me from thinking about what a sorry fuck I was.

Then I met her, my Bella, my savior, and it everything. She was just another assignment, and I kept telling myself that until I realized it wasn't true anymore.

I came back from the memories when I felt her shift, and I realized I was still holding Bella to me on the sand. She just watched me patiently lose myself in the memories, letting me hold her like an anchor to the present.

To the future.

I hadn't just come to the beach to dwell in the cesspool of my memories. I'd come to contemplate a big decision for the both of us, and grow a fucking pair about it.

I had a ring in my pocket for her. It was a pretty fucking beautiful ring, if I do say so myself, and I knew it would fluster her when she saw it. She didn't need the symbol, she'd mentioned to me before. But I wanted her to have the symbol, know that she was loved and worth it.

And I wanted the world to see my symbol, and know that she mine, and that she was loved like no other could ever be loved. With the money I dropped on it, no way could anyone miss the ring or mistake its meaning, not that I gave a fuck what the rest of the world thought or how much I spent on it. That was inconsequential. She'd freak if she ever found out much it cost and I'd for sure hear her wrath about it, but I didn't fucking care. She deserved it, and it was something I could give her free and clear.

I focused in on her face again, realizing I'd wandered off into my head again. She was staring off into the ocean, lost in her own thoughts. Her hand was still on my face, her thumb absently stroking my cheek and I reveled in it.

Her attention snapped back to me when I turned my face into her palm and kissed it and she smiled at me again. She placed her other hand on my face, cradling it, before leaning in and kissing me. I could feel her love and adoration into me with her kiss. I kissed her back, relishing the feel of her full lips in mine, and hoped she could feel me pouring my love into her too. I cradled her lovely face between my hands as well, hoping she didn't mind the roughness against her soft skin. It wasn't a passionate kiss, but a gentle one that spoke a thousand words.

"I love you," I murmured to her when she pulled away.

"I love you too, Edward," she whispered, and her smile this time was brilliant. She was radiant in that moment and I was fucking thankful that God or whoever forgave my sins in life enough to let me have her.

I smiled back at her, just as radiant as she, and hoped God was forgiving enough to let me keep her.

**So? Whatcha think? Review and let me know if it should go on, any suggestions, etc?**


	2. In The Beginning

**Hey, here's the next chapter! I'm posting way late (2 a.m.) because I'll forget in the morning. Ha. I was excited to see how many people put me on alert, so thanks for that! Reviews would be even more awesome, because I need validation like no other, and I just love reading them. So be kind? :D**

**Thanks again to my super awesome beta, who beta-ed the majority of this from her iPhone while on vacation. I heart her like whoa for that.**

**Disclaimer: Not SM. Don't own the characters I'm shamelessly toying with. I do, however, own enough yarn to have my own herd of sheep.**

(Song: 'Streets of Philadelphia'- Bruce Springsteen (for the beginning of the chapter until around when Edward's phone rings) Also a good one for that part: 'Mad World' by Gary Jules.)

**August:**

I stepped into my dark apartment and sighed. I hated coming here lately. It wasn't home; it was just a place to do laundry and sleep. Lately it wasn't even used for the latter, since two out of my last three jobs required me to be out of town or to stay with a client.

Those were the most awkward of my assignments, the ones where it was best for the client if we stayed in their home. It always felt like a fucking intrusion, and I suppose it was, but it was the job. I was grateful to not be working, but coming back to this empty place didn't improve my mood.

Jasper Whitlock, my best- and only- friend, and I were bodyguards for a private agency based in the greater Seattle area, though we were sent all over the country for jobs. Our agency specialized in personal bodyguards, spies of a sort, and assassins that put any government goon to shame. We were one of the top bodyguard teams in the agency, put on the biggest and toughest cases, usually dealing with protecting people from mob jobs and terrorist threats. Jasper was the brains, I was the brawn. We both knew how to fight, how to take motherfuckers out in any fashion necessary, and we were both capable of using state-of-the art technology. Jasper preferred the technological aspects, such as surveillance and set up, and I was glad. I had no patience for that bullshit no matter how important it was for getting the job done. I preferred the fighting, getting my hands dirty and seeing the results. Jasper was grateful for that. We knew our strengths, we stuck with them, and we were perfect partners for each other.

I wasn't an especially large guy, tall and lean to the average eye, but I had the muscles and the will to do my job and do it well.

I flipped the lights on in the entryway and sighed again. The walls were the same boring white they always were, and it should have comforted me. It didn't. I didn't have any pictures or paintings hanging, and it just reminded me of how empty I'd let my life become. I shook off this bleak assessment, reminding myself that all I wanted was a shower and some sleep right now.

I dropped the bag containing my dirty clothes off in the laundry room, and then went to one of the extra bedrooms, unpacking my equipment and returning it to the drawers and closets I kept them in. I used this room to hold any weapons and tools I needed, and I always kept it locked with a key I wore around my neck. I didn't need the few visitors that did come to my place stumbling upon that shit and wondering why the hell I had it.

Finally, I stepped into my bathroom and into my blessed shower, turning the water on as hot as I could tolerate it. I stood there and let the water from the four jets beat the stress and tension from my body, washing myself absently while I let my thoughts unravel.

People knew what I did for a living, but not all of it. They knew I was in security and lived under the assumption I guarded malls or something. I never corrected them, and I never told them that I was a bodyguard assigned to the innocent to protect them until their tormentors were put to justice, legally or not.

Thankfully, the only people I had to worry about lying to by omission were my ex-foster parents, Carlisle and Esme Cullen. They were the closest fucking thing to family I had, and I owed them so much in my life. They couldn't have kids of their own and decided to become foster parents around the time I became an orphan.

After my parents died when I was twelve, I was stuck in the fucking system and would have become a waste of humanity if it weren't for them. My sister, Alice, came along a couple of years later, taken in as a foster kid as well when her mother met her tragic end by a drug overdose and her father was a no-show since conception. She was two years younger than I was and managed to be bubbly and energetic despite her tragic home life before the Cullens. We weren't siblings by blood, but we acted like we were and loved and protected each other fiercely.

Now at twenty-five, I wasn't legally bound to them or the system anymore, but they still treated me as their son, and I still treated them as family, visiting them on holidays and calling them once in a while. They would never replace our parents, and they didn't try to, but they still loved us unconditionally and gave us a comfortable life.

Alice met Jasper when I brought him home for Christmas three years ago, and they've been together since. Sometimes it was sickening to watch them together, but I was glad Alice had Jasper. I don't think she could have done better, and he managed to balance her energy out nicely with his quiet, calm demeanor. Alice was always mentioning how I needed to stop working so much and find myself someone to settle down with, and I always came back with some smart-ass comment about being tied down to some nagging bitch. It was usually mindless banter between us about it, but I knew she was truly concerned about me being alone.

I stayed in the shower until the water ran cold. I stepped out and toweled myself off, tucking the towel securely around my waist. I wiped the mist off of the mirror to take a look at myself and let out a humorless chuckle. I was a hot fucking mess. My reddish-brown hair was in wet disarray, which was about par for the course. I could never do anything with it so I let it do its thing and didn't worry about it. I was never into that metrosexual shit anyway using 'product' and bows or whatever the hell else those pansies used. My green eyes were tired and hollow, bruise-like shadows under them from the lack of sleep from my last job. I was in desperate need of a shave but decided that could wait until the morning.

It was standard routine to have a couple of days off between jobs, and I looked forward to sleeping through most of it this time around. I grabbed my cell phone from the pocket of my discarded pants on the floor and shuffled from the bathroom to my bedroom, pulling the covers down on my bed. I dropped the towel from around me, setting my phone on the nightstand, and fell into bed naked, covering up and passing the fuck out.

My dreams that night managed to remain calm, and I was thankful for that. I really needed the sleep and didn't want my nightmares fucking up my time off. They were always the same, and I knew what was coming, but it didn't stop me from waking up panting, in a cold sweat, every time.

My phone ringing woke me early the next morning, and I cursed whoever was calling. I lifted my face from my pillow and cracked an eye open to read the screen before I answered it.

"Jasper, what the fuck? You're supposed to have the day off too, so why the hell are you bothering me at," I checked the clock on the stand, "eight in the goddamn morning? If you're calling because Alice wants to do something together, tell her to fuck off for a few more hours."

Jasper chuckled a little, sounding as tired as I was. "Yeah, like Alice would let me live if I tell her that, regardless of the fact I'm the messenger and not the source. No, I'm calling because Laurent called me about another job and left it up to me to call you."

"What the fuck?" I groaned, rolling onto my back. "Did you happen to mention that we're taking our standard time off because _we just finished a fucking job last night_?"

Jasper yawned before responding. "Yeah, I told him that. He said that's why he called me and not you. He knew you'd cuss him out and insult everyone in his family, and he just wasn't up for that this morning. He also said it's a really big job, required our expertise and he's expecting us at nine."

I groaned again. "Fucker." I sighed and rubbed a hand over my face. "You're driving this time, and you bring the coffee."  
"Yeah, Alice is already up and making the coffee. She knew it was my turn. She's uncanny. I think she said something about muffins too."

"Muffins? Bless her." I muttered. "Alright, man, call me when you get here."

"Will do."

I closed the phone and lay in bed for a few minutes, trying to relish the last bit of time off. I finally dragged my ass out of bed, throwing clothes on and spending five minutes shaving the scruff off of my face, almost saddened by the fact that it didn't make me look any less like hell. I didn't give a shit about my looks per se, but I knew I'd catch shit from Alice if she happened to see me this way, and life was just easier when she wasn't bitching at me.

I still had time to kill before Jasper showed up so I decided to catch up on any emails and bills. I sorted through my mail, pitching junk, and rifled through the bills before I walked over to the computer. I checked my email and found most of it was junk as well. After deleting the four emails about penis enlargement and two emails about finding sexy coeds online, I was left with three emails from Esme and two from my crazy fucking ex, Tanya.

I skimmed through the emails from Tanya, snickering to myself at her desperate attempts to tell me we belonged together and how much she missed me and what she'd do to me if we spent time together. I'd dumped her like a hot fucking potato when I realized what a goddamn, gold-digging, psycho slut she was. No way was I getting into that shit. She was fine for a good time or two, but the sex was not worth dealing with the rest of her.

I read through Esme's emails telling me what she and Carlisle were up to, how they missed Alice and me, and subtly mentioning about how it had been a long time since we'd come home for a visit. I replied to her three messages with one long one about how work was fine, I was fine, how I missed the both of them, and a vague response to when I'd be able to come down.

I heard my phone ring in my room, and I grabbed it and headed out when I saw it was Jasper calling.

I slid into the passenger seat of Jasper's blue BMW 128i and immediately zeroed in on the travel mug waiting for me in the cup holder. I sipped on the liquid energy and sighed in contentment. Alice had made it just how I liked it, tons of sugar and a drop of cream. Bless her hyperactive heart. Jasper handed over a fucking gigantic blueberry muffin, and I almost cried in joy when I felt that it was still warm. If I'd had no pride I would kiss her feet when I saw her next, but no way would I ever do something so fucking ridiculous and emasculating. She'd poked fun at me for taking my coffee so "pussified" before, and I'd told her to can it or I'd take a pair of scissors to her prized Prada bags.

I began to devour the muffin as Jasper wove expertly through downtown traffic. While I appreciated the excellent tuning of his car, I still preferred the feel and speed of my precious Volvo. I loved that car like a member of the family, and no one, I mean no one, was allowed to drive her. Alice made fun of me for having such a 'soccer mom' car and suggested I buy something as awesome as her Porsche or Jasper's Beemer, but I shrugged it off. My Volvo had plenty of character and speed for me.

We arrived at the agency and walked inside the sleek building. It was located in the business area of the city, surrounded by other flashy buildings that housed yuppies kissing ass to climb the corporate ladder. We rode the elevator in silence, sipping our coffee and trying to become coherent enough for real conversation.

When we arrived on our floor, we walked down the hall to Laurent's office. His assistant, Corrine, smiled as we approached and stood to greet us.

"Edward, Jasper," she acknowledged. "Laurent is expecting you, so go right on in. Do you need anything?"

We shook our heads and raised our coffee mugs to show her we were good to go and opened the door to Laurent's office.

"Gentlemen." Laurent was sitting behind his wide cherry desk, attacking his keyboard with fervor. He spared us a glance from behind his glasses and gestured for us to sit in the chairs across from him.

Jasper and I settled into the black leather chairs, waiting silently as Laurent finished his business. We knew when he was in the middle of something you left him to finish without interruption or you faced his cutting attitude.

The skyline of Seattle was spread behind Laurent, visible through the windows of his cushy corner office. The sky was gray, per usual, but at least it wasn't fucking raining. While I didn't mind the amount of overcast days that Washington was famous for, I hated being soggy when it rained for days on end.

Laurent finished whatever he was working on and pushed his keyboard away from him, leaning back in his ergonomically designed chair. Laurent was probably at least ten years older than Jasper and I, but didn't look nearly that old. His espresso skin and mahogany eyes contained a rare youth that belied his age.

"Something's come up, boys," he began, pressing his hands together in front of him as he addressed us. "I know you just finished up the Rancetti job last night and you're supposed to have the next five days off, but a situation has arisen that requires you two to do your job starting tomorrow."

"What's the job, boss?" Jasper asked, finishing off his coffee in one big gulp. I'm glad he was awake, because I wasn't ready to speak to Laurent without giving him my choice words about being in on my day off. I just stared blandly at the man behind the desk.

"Charlie and Renee Swan were killed in an unfortunate automobile accident two weeks ago," Laurent stated, pulling a file from a pile on the corner of his desk. He opened it and rifled through the papers to get the information he needed to tell us what had to be done.

"Bummer," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

Laurent gave me a pointed look before continuing. "They leave behind two grown children, Isabella and Emmett Swan, ages twenty-four and twenty-seven respectively. Charlie was the police chief down in Forks who got in over his head tangling with the Francis family."

I snorted. "What the hell? The Francis family has people in that podunk town to be messed with in the first place? What fucking interests are there in that shithole?"

"No interests, just a quiet place to do business without people noticing. Lots of woods to have secluded residences and that sort of thing. Charlie was suspicious and started poking around and must have gotten too close for the Francis family's comfort. In any case, Charlie and his wife were visiting their daughter in Port Angeles, and their car explodes when they start it."

"Exploded?" Jasper piped up. "Were there any other casualties?"

Laurent shook his head. "No, the daughter lives towards the outside of town, so no neighbors were close enough to have been affected. She was quite traumatized by the experience." He paused and closed the file, setting his hands on it before looking at us again. "Here's the job, boys. You're being assigned to watch over Isabella. At her house."

Jasper and I groaned together. "We have to stay at _another_ stranger's house?" Jasper asked, practically whining. "We just got done doing that."

"Sorry, boys, the Francis people are looking at her too, in case her father said anything to compromise them." Laurent replied gravely.

"What about the brother?" I asked. I really hoped Jasper and I wouldn't have to split up because no way did I want to suffer alone in someone else's house.

"Ah, he lives in Olympia, and we've sent another team to watch over him and his fiancée." I sighed inwardly, relieved. "James and Victoria. They're staying with them and doing their own surveillance to get ahead of these people. Which you two need to do while staying with Ms. Swan. Keep an eye out, check things around town, see what you can find out about the Francis people and what they're up to. You start tomorrow, so plan what you'll need and pack today. She's expecting you two in the morning, no later than ten because she has meetings she needs to attend."

"So wait," I piped up, irked to have been called to work at the ass crack of my day off so I could work on the rest of my time off. "What the hell makes her so damn special that Jasper and I have to start working right away to protect her? She ain't the key to the goddamn universe; she's just some small town girl whose father was doing his job and died for it. That should be it. Unless she's nosing around in their business too, I don't see why we have to be inconvenienced."

Laurent sighed and leaned forward. "She's not. She teaches high school English in Port Angeles and she keeps to herself pretty well. Like I said, they're afraid she knows things because of her father and don't want to risk her saying anything to anyone."

I wondered who was bankrolling this shindig, since I knew teachers made shit for pay and being the police chief of Forks was hardly better. I knew better than to ask though, since Laurent would tell me it's none of my business anyway, and I didn't care enough as long as I was being paid for my bit.

So instead of asking and wasting my time getting shot down, I scoffed and rolled my eyes again. "We'd better get extra time off when this bullshit is over."

**Ok, hope you liked. I'll be out of town for a couple of days, so I hope to get the next chapter cranked out while I'm away with no internet. Hopefully I can have it done and ready to be up sometime next week.**

**Reviews make me write faster? Find out!**


	3. Stronger

**Hey guys, I realized that I gave Jasper the wrong last name in the last chapter. I fixed it, so please forgive me. **

**Still not SM, don't own. I do own a bitchy cat though.  
**

(Song: 'Stronger'- Kanye West. Mainly applies to Edward's workout music, but I'm sure it fits much more than that.)

Laurent dismissed us after a few minutes more of instruction and set-up for the Swan job. We had the rest of today to pack whatever we needed for an indefinite stay, as well as surveillance equipment to setup at her home. We were to use our company credit cards to foot the bills, both ours and hers, while we stayed with her. After all was said and done, we billed whoever ordered the job and most were too grateful to object.

He also warned us that while she knew we were coming, she was less than pleased about the situation. Fucking perfect. Nothing like an ungrateful, bitter bitch to make your life hell while you were obligated to make sure she didn't die. Jasper and I'd had a couple of those cases before. Someone's rich daughter/niece/trophy wife assigned to us and they acted like it was all our faults we had to do it, making every day a veritable bitchfest because they couldn't keep up their Botox treatments as frequently. Yeah, our fault. Our fucking fault their daddy/uncle/sugar daddy thought that while money made the world go 'round, it also made them invincible. It was always a treat to see those uppity shitheads show their yellow when they were proven wrong by a few rounds aimed at them. They listened to us after that. People like those assholes made me want to look the other way once in a while and let them learn a thing or two.

Jasper dropped me off back at my place, warning me that Alice wanted to get together for dinner later. I sighed as I rode the elevator back up to my floor. I was already feeling pretty low that my day off was shot to hell, and now I'd have to endure my sister's yapping about something or other I could be doing in my life better. If it was about finding someone and settling down, I swear to shit I would not hesitate to attack her closet with a Molotov cocktail.

Once I was back in my apartment, I went straight to the spare room with my equipment. I didn't think I'd need much heavy artillery, and if it came down to it, Seattle was only an hour away from Port Angeles. The way I drove, I could be here, grab what I needed, and be back in that time. I packed my black briefcase with two pistols and ammo, as well as two hunting knives, nestling it all in the sponge lining. After that was set and packed, I grabbed one more handgun and another knife, setting them aside instead of packing them. Those would go on my person tomorrow when the job officially started.

I then began the tedious task of laundry so I had enough clothing for this fucking "indefinite" assignment. While I waited on the machines between loads, I flipped through channels on the TV, trying to find something that could keep my interest, which was a hard task with the shit they put on the air these days. I stretched out on the couch, yawning, as I focused in on a Mariners game. I didn't last a full inning before I was asleep, and the fucking dreams came.

_Dad starts to pull through an intersection when the light on our side turns green. I'm starting to doze in the backseat, letting his voice lull me to sleep, smelling the lingering scent of his cologne that he'd let me wear today. It's musky, woodsy almost, with an underlying sweetness, and it comforts me. He is in mid-sentence about how glad he is that I have my mother's grace when we hear tires screeching. My eyes fly open and shift to the window and all I see are bright lights._

I woke with a start, gasping for air. I had to prop my hand on the coffee table to keep myself from tumbling onto the floor. I groaned when I realized I was safe in my apartment, but the dream still reverberated in my memory.

I realized the washer was done with its cycle and the Mariners were two outs away from winning against Cleveland. I switched the wet clothes into the dryer and started another load before taking a look out of the window in my living room. I ignored the piano in the corner opposite the TV. I always felt the need to play after I'd woken from the goddamn nightmares, but I never did. My mother loved when I played, and I just couldn't bring myself to endure the pain of trying, even for her memory. I felt like I let her down when I didn't play, but I just couldn't fucking do it without feeling like vomiting and shaking.

I'd never get rid of the piano though. It was the one thing from my past I could stand to have around me. My parents were smart enough to have their shit in order and pretty much left everything to me, including the house and a tidy trust fund that would take care of me in case they couldn't. I technically didn't need to work for the rest of my life, hell even my grandkids' lives, if I chose to, but I wasn't raised that way. Things weren't just given to you, no matter what your fucking status or how much dough you had in your bank account, and you had to earn what you had in life.

So I faded away from that life, from being a Masen. Once Carlisle and Esme had taken me in, they happily allowed me to take their last name legally; I stopped being Edward Masen and became Edward Cullen. It wasn't that I was ashamed of being my father's son, but I knew that it would be difficult to be my own man and work for my own life if I was treated with sympathetic leniencies from my parents' tragic end. I couldn't let everything my parents worked so hard for get sold to the state or some stupid, rich fucktard who wanted bragging rights to the Masen estate, so I set up a fund to maintain the estate without me and worked my ass off to get through school, through college, and into this job. I'd like to think my parents would be proud of me, despite the different path my life took.

The rest of my afternoon was spent finishing up laundry and packing two duffel bags with clothes and toiletries, as well as a couple of bulletproof vests. If I was to follow her around everywhere she went, we would be wearing the vests until we were aware of how serious the situation was.

I felt sorry for Jasper. Not only did he have to pack clothes and weapons like I did, he also had to pack his laptops and any other technical gadgets he'd need to set up surveillance around Ms. Swan's home. That shit was heavy, but I rationalized that he didn't get shot at or nearly blown up as often as I had, so it evened out.

As promised, Alice called and insisted I go to their place for dinner. That meant we'd be dining on goddamn Chinese takeout--Alice was an awful cook. She preferred poring over her asinine fashion catalogues instead of cookbooks, and Jasper never had time to learn to cook, so their kitchen was rarely used.

I decided that I'd work off some of the pent-up anger from my dream in the little gym in the basement of my building. It wasn't anything fancy, just a couple of treadmills, some stationary bikes, and a multi-weight machine, but it was enough for me. I warmed up with a run on one of the treadmills, losing myself in the straining of my muscles as my feet pounded on the surface and the pulsing strains of Kanye West streaming through the headphones of my iPod. After five miles, I worked my arms and legs on the weight machine before a returning for a cool down jog on the treadmill.

There was nothing like a workout to push the dark shit away and keep me from dwelling on it. I hated when I couldn't work out after a nightmare--all the fucking anger and resentment and guilt would fester inside and make me a bigger sonofabitch than usual. Even Jasper couldn't stand to be around me if that happened, and he can tolerate pretty much everybody. He knew what had happened to my parents--I'd told him about it before--and he knew if I was being a prick, I'd had a nightmare and didn't want to be fucked with.

I felt much better after the physical exertion and relished another hot shower before dressing comfortably in jeans and a black t-shirt. A glance at the clock told me it was about time to head over to Jasper and Alice's place, so I made my way to my baby in the parking garage and headed out.

Ten minutes later I was standing outside their apartment, but before I could knock Alice flung the door open and launched herself into my arms. I never had to knock anymore; she always just seemed to know when I was there, and I welcomed her bone-crushing hug.

"Hey, squirt," I murmured into her black hair, squeezing her back before putting her petite frame back on her feet.

She looked up at me and smiled sadly. "Hey, big brother. You had another nightmare." It was a simple statement, not a question, not an accusation. She could always tell.

I didn't deny it or say anything as I followed her into her place and into the kitchen. Jasper was already there, setting out plates on the island. He smiled when I came in, and I could see he knew too. I smiled back and nodded, letting him know that I was alright.

"Drink?" Alice asked, walking to the refrigerator.

"Ah, just water is fine, thanks." I sat on a stool at the island, where meals in the Whitlock/Brandon apartment usually took place. Alice hadn't taken the Cullen name like I had. She wasn't trying to escape her past like I was, and loved her mother despite the addiction that killed her.

"She told me you sounded off on the phone," Jasper murmured to me while unpacking Chinese containers from a brown paper bag. "She knew you'd had a bad dream. You sure you're alright?"

I nodded, giving him another sincere smile to convey that I was fine. "I got some time in at the gym in my building."

He gave me a knowing look as he sat across from me, helping Alice set out our drinks. We ate dinner with conversation about nothing in particular, my bad dreams forgotten.

"So, Jasper tells me you guys have to stay away again," Alice pouted, pulling lo mein neatly from a container and onto her plate. "Port Angeles isn't so far away, so that's nice. Who are you guarding?"

I looked at Jasper, rolling my eyes. We weren't supposed to divulge our information with anyone not involved, but Alice always managed to weasel it out of us. Since she could control Jasper with sex, he was the easiest to get our information from. He was so fucking whipped it was sad, but we trusted Alice. Between Jasper and me she'd learned enough to defend herself, and that, added to her tough cookie attitude, eased our fears about telling her some of what we did. It helped, having just one person on the outside know.

"Uh, Isabella Swan," I replied, scooping some sweet and sour chicken onto my plate.

"Chief Swan's daughter?" she replied, looking between us. Her expression held mild surprise, which in turn surprised me.

"Yeah, Al, do you know her?" Jasper asked.

Alice's face scrunched up a little in thought. "Sorta. We went to school with her, Edward. She was in your class. I didn't know her well since I was two years behind you guys, but she seemed nice. Really quiet, really shy. Clumsy as hell."

I tried to think back to high school but failed to place her. If she was quiet and shy, I didn't hold much hope for remembering her. I could remember Jessica Stanley and how fucking gross she was, or what a shithead Mike Newton was, but no Isabella Swan. "Not ringing a bell, Al. Can't remember an Isabella."

She shrugged and continued eating. "You probably wouldn't. She was a bookworm, and those weren't your type, so it's not a surprise you don't remember her. Come to think of it, she didn't go by her full name. I'm pretty sure she went by Bella."

Bella, Bella. That sounded a little more familiar, but it still didn't bring a face to mind. I shrugged in response and didn't put much more thought into it. I'd see her tomorrow anyway, and if I recognized her, it might make life easier. If not, well, it was just another job.

"What happened anyway that she needs you two guarding her? She get into something she shouldn't have?" Alice queried, swirling lo mein around her chopsticks before slurping it up.

"Her parents did, and paid for it. We're watching her in case it gets her too. Another team is watcher her brother in Olympia," Jasper answered, handing her a napkin. She smiled at him adoringly, and I almost gagged at their moment. Fucking couples always shoving that shit in your face whether they realized it or not. I wasn't necessarily jealous of the two, but it was fucking disgusting to watch them get gooey over each other. Holy Christ, it could get sickening, and this moment was definitely not the worst I'd witnessed between them.

Alice instantly looked sympathetic, almost teary eyed. "Oh, the poor dear. That's so sad." Leave it to Alice to mourn someone else's loss. That's part of what made her so fucking awesome sometimes. Jasper patted her arm and kissed her cheek, and she smiled at him again, this one less gooey.

After dinner, we talked a little about when would be a good time to visit Carlisle and Esme, since Esme had been hinting at Alice as well. Alice was available anytime, but since I couldn't exactly drag Ms. Swan to my parents' house or invite them to her house, it was more difficult for me. Alice was going to visit in a weekend or two, promising to give my love to them since I had no definite idea when I could go myself. When that was settled, I headed out, hoping to catch some sleep before waking up early to start the new job in the morning.

My mind was still trying to think back to high school and Bella Swan while I drove home and got ready for bed, to no avail. I had no idea why I was so goddamn interested and just chalked it up to hoping I could remember something to make the entire situation less awkward tomorrow.

**Soo.... what do you think? Review? Pretty please with Edward on top?**


	4. Nice To Meet You

**Alright guys, thank you for being patient. This chapter was like pulling teeth to write, school started last week (It's my last semester before student teaching, so CRUNCH TIME), and my dad was in the hospital a couple of weeks ago (don't worry, he's fine). So, needless to say, it's been a bit stressful lately. I hope you enjoy it, and thank you **_**so**_** much to my beta, feistyyoungbeden, for being awesome and rooting for me on this chapter!**

**Stuff I own: a Product (Red) Razr cell phone, numerous music ed textbooks, a blue beanbag chair.**

**Stuff I don't own: Twilight and it's characters. Or Rob. Or Jackson. Or a nicer car.**

(Songs: 'I'm Listening'- James Newton Howard [from the _I Am Legend_ soundtrack], 'Mishima/Closing'- Philip Glass)

**Chapter 3**

I was up at seven the next morning.

I'd slept fitfully through the night. The nightmares hadn't come back, but my mind wouldn't settle and let the sweet fucking relief of sleep come.

I was supposed to pick Jasper up at seven-thirty. We decided my car was the less ostentatious choice to have in Port Angeles, and since I'd be spending the most time with Isabella Swan outside of her home, I wasn't about to worry about keeping Jasper's precious fucking car in one piece too.

Jasper was waiting for me on the sidewalk outside of his building surrounded by bags and cases. He could almost pass for Alice with all the shit he had. I put on the hazard signals and got out to help him load it all into the car. All of his technological crap went into the trunk with my weapons cases and the rest went into the backseat. By the time we'd finished loading, Alice had made her way down with breakfast for us: muffins again, with another round of excellent coffee. She wished us well and gave me a pointed look when she said to be nice to Isabella. I flipped her the bird from the driver's seat, to which she responded in kind before blowing Jasper a kiss as I drove away. That's how we showed our love as siblings.

Jasper and I began making plans for when we arrived to the Swan residence. We needed to set up cameras on her property, inside and out, as well as get a list of names and photos of the people who visited her often so we knew who to allow and who shouldn't be around. Phone taps needed to be set up, as well as some sort of email filter.

"I just hope she realizes the gravity of the situation and doesn't give us much grief about the phones and email," Jasper mused. "Remember that time the daughter didn't want us tapping her email because she was sending some raunchy stuff to her sugar daddy?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I remember. Her sugar daddy was a forty-fucking-something trust fund loser, and she was dipshit jailbait 'in love,'" I used one hand for air quotes as I sped towards Port Angeles, "I think it was our moral duty on top of actual duty to report that shit to her father." It was also funny as hell to get the spoiled bitch in trouble.

Jasper laughed too. "Hey, this had nothing to do with moral duty—the dude wasn't on our list of approved people, and we had to find out for sure from the father. He about had a coronary when he saw that message with the picture of the guy naked on all fours and his daughter in that skanky 'Little Bo Peep' costume with the shepherd's crook around his neck. Remember when she tried to claw our eyes out with those damn fake nails of hers?"

"Yeah, it was like getting attacked by a tanorexic, GlamorShots version of Edward Scissorhands, but at least he was responsible enough to squash that shit instead of looking the other way," I conceded.

Jasper agreed, and we spent the rest of the trip reminiscing about jobs and some of the clients we'd had. Since he was on security detail on most jobs, he saw what was filmed on the cameras and was amazed at what people did when they weren't being watched. He was professional enough to fast forward through any particularly unsavory behavior, but if he ever wanted to retire early, he had all sorts of shit to blackmail some powerful people with.

Once inside the limits of Port Angeles, I had the GPS repeat the address of Ms. Swan's residence but ignored its route suggestions. I found it easily on the outskirts of town. Since living with Carlisle and Esme in Forks, I'd learned the Port Angeles area well since it had more to do than our bumfuck little town and was convenient to just drive around for the sake of driving.

I pulled into the driveway of a small ranch home matching the address the GPS had given. It was red brick with pristine white shutters and a cheery pale yellow front door. The outside was so clean and quaint, I could picture some elderly woman living there. I wondered if she collected weird things like figurines of sad children or, dare I think it, fucking clowns. I never understood the appeal of clowns. Those fuckers were scary as hell, and why anyone would collect them was way beyond me.

I kept an eye on the windows to see if Isabella had heard us, but there was no movement behind the curtains in the windows. There was no car parked out front, but I assumed it was parked in the attached garage. She knew we were coming; Laurent had said so. Perhaps she just hadn't heard us pull up.

Jasper and I left the car and walked up the short cement walkway to the porch. He motioned for me to take the lead, and I rolled my eyes at him before I rang the doorbell. We heard it chime a simple two-tone ring which I was grateful for. I hated those stupid doorbells that rang a goddamn fanfare like it was announcing royalty or some shit. Fucking ridiculous.

Finally the lock clicked, and the door opened to reveal a visibly exhausted Isabella Swan. Upon first glance I had no recollection of her from high school. She was dressed in tan trousers and a white button-down shirt. Her brown hair was pulled away from her face, a few loose tendrils hanging around her pale features. Her eyes were brown and wide but looked so fucking tired and sad. The circles under them were dark purple with lack of sleep and, I would assume, a great deal of grief. I remember looking like that for months after my parents died, and I instantly felt a phantom pain of my own.

Her full mouth pulled down into a frown when she saw us standing on the doorstep. She unlocked the storm door and pushed it out, stepping into the opening to address us.

"I assume you two are the babysitters Jacob hired," she said softly. Her voice was tired and quiet, with an edge of bitterness as she looked at each of us. Her eyes did look a little familiar upon closer inspection, but there was still no rush of recognition that hit me. Jasper and I should have given her a hard time for opening the door without a lack of self-preservation. I at least knew I was a prick enough to do it, but she looked so fucking sad that I felt too sorry for her to say anything.

"Uh, yes, ma'am," Jasper spoke up beside me, giving me a chagrined look. He offered his hand like the fucking Southern gentleman he was. "I'm Jasper Whitlock."

Her pale hand grasped his for a brief moment before her eyes settled on me. "I know you," she stated quietly, "but I don't remember your name. You look very familiar."

I offered my hand as well, not to be outdone by Dixie next to me. "Edward Cullen."

Her eyes widened briefly, and her cheeks pinked as she shook my hand. It was small and cool, and I swear to shit I felt some sort of current when she touched me. "Ah, yes. I remember you now. We went to school together." Her eyes darted away for a moment before looking at me again.

I nodded, feeling a little sheepish. "So I was told. I'm sorry to say I can't remember you, Ms. Swan."

"It's Bella," she corrected, opening the door wider and motioning us inside. "You probably wouldn't remember me. My goal was to be invisible in high school, and it seemed to have worked." Her tone hinted at bitterness. "You always seemed very preoccupied. I don't blame you for not remembering." She sounded like she was saddened by her admission, but she was right--I _was_ too busy getting over my own pain and trying to get by under the radar in high school to worry much about schoolmates.

We stepped into a small foyer. The floor was made from dark stones that were polished to a dull shine. The walls were a simple flat white, and there were two prints of beach scenes on the wall to the right of the door. A hallway led straight to a T; the left looked like it led to another hallway, the right to a living room. Two doors that I assumed were closets flanked the hallway.

"Um, so I really don't know how this works," she said, her arms crossed in front of her as if she were trying to make herself smaller. Or hold herself together.

"Well, it's going to be tough," Jasper began. He was more aware of how people felt in these situations. Hell, he seemed to be extra aware of people's feelings in most situations. It was helpful at times, but downright creepy to think about. "This is essentially an invasion into your life, to protect your life. We realize it's ironic, but we're here for you."

She chuckled humorlessly. "Yeah. Well, if it were up to me, you wouldn't be here, but whatever."

Jasper and I exchanged a look. Bitter bitch, it was.

She must have seen our exchange because she sighed and ran a hand over her face. "I'm sorry. It's been a rough couple of weeks. I understand why you're here. I know why Jacob hired you. I'm just not happy about having my life invaded like this, so please excuse my rudeness."

I smiled at her, hoping it was coming across as real and kind. "No one is ever happy about needing our services. We come in, we invade your privacy, all for your protection. We know it's a pain in the ass, but we do our job well. You have every right to be upset, Ms. Swan."

Her eyes were on me again and her mouth was a firm line. "Bella, if you please. None of that 'Ms. Swan' crap. We're the same age, for Christ's sake; quit treating me like an elder." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Sorry. Again. So now what? Do you want the grand tour?"

Jasper answered this time, trying to be the calming influence. "That would be very nice, Bella." Kissass. "We'll need to see how your house is laid out, what your property looks like. We'll need to set up cameras and other security methods throughout the house and property, as well as tapping your phones and emails. We also need a list of people who visit you regularly, as well as photos of them so that we know who is supposed to be here and who isn't."

She nodded, looking like she was processing everything. "Alright. Well, I can tell you right now that the only people that will come here are my brother Emmett and his fiancée, Rosalie. Oh, and my stupid best friend, Jacob." She rolled her eyes. "He's the overprotective ass that hired you two. Mom and Dad used to come by all the time, before…" She trailed off, her eyes growing a little sadder.

"We're very sorry for your loss, Bella." I said quietly, hoping to convey that I could personally understand what she was going through. Her eyes had glazed up with tears for a moment, but she was a trooper and managed to will them away. I admired her determination in trying to stay strong, even if it was a façade for others.

She thanked me and smiled sadly. After a moment of awkward silence, she motioned for us to follow her down the short hallway. She pointed to the living room to the right.

"Living room," she confirmed as she led us a couple of steps into the room. It had white walls as well, and the back wall mainly consisted of sliding glass doors that looked out onto a lush green backyard that faded into trees. Bookshelves crammed with books lined one wall. I couldn't read the titles from where I stood and wondered if they were anything worth reading, or if she read crap that was pandered as literature these days like those crap vampire books that seemed all the rage. A well-worn blue couch sat a few feet in front of the shelves, facing a small entertainment center on the left wall with a television and DVD player. A decent stereo system was on a shelf above the TV.

Next, she led us down the hall that led away from the living room. There was one door on each side of the hallway and a third door at the end. That door was closed.

"Bathroom," she pointed to the left door. A glance inside showed a modestly sized bathroom outfitted in yellows: the tub, the counter, the floor.

"Spare bedroom," she indicated the door across from the bathroom. She flipped on the light inside, illuminating jade green walls, a full-sized four poster bed covered with a pale purple comforter. There was one window trimmed in white curtains that also looked into the backyard, showing off nothing but green and trees. "Um, I'm not sure how to work out sleeping arrangements, since there's only one bed. I can take the couch and someone can take my bed."

"No need to worry about it," Jasper assured her. "We work in shifts. I sleep during the day and keep an eye on things at night. Edward is with you all day and sleeps at night. One bed works."

She looked mildly surprised confused but only nodded in agreement before she led us back to the door at the end of the hallway. She opened the door into what looked to be the master bedroom. The walls of this room were a medium blue, almost like the initial fading of the day. There was a full-sized bed in here as well, but it was sleigh style made from a light wood, most likely oak. The room was done in various blues and a shorter bookshelf was against one wall, holding even more books and a smaller television.

"There's a basement downstairs with some basic storage, a pantry I use for food storage, a laundry room, and there's a treadmill and stationary bike," she explained as she led us back down the hall, through the foyer and into the kitchen. "You guys are welcome to use any of that if you need. I can't imagine it'll be much fun to just sit around here all day."

More white walls ruled this room. Everything looked clean but well used, and Bella seemed a little more relaxed here. The counters were a shitty orange color and looked scrubbed until they gleamed. The stove and refrigerator were obviously updated as they were stainless steel set amongst the grotesque counters. There was a coffeemaker next to the sink, and I could smell that she'd recently brewed her morning coffee. I'd finished what Alice had given us on the drive here, and my mouth watered at the scent.

There was a counter that separated the kitchen from another room that could have served as a den, but Bella seemed to use it for an office. A desk was against the wall farthest from the kitchen, papers scattered across the top of it, a MacBook resting on the mess. A comfortable-looking black leather chair was stuffed in the corner, a stand lamp behind it. These two rooms showed the most signs of being lived in, signs that showed Bella seemed most comfortable in them.

She pointed to a doorway off of the office area. "The dining room. I hardly ever use it, so if you need something like a 'base of operations,' you can use that." She rolled her eyes and used her fingers for air quotes as well, instantly gaining a little more of my respect. I could appreciate sarcasm; God knows I used it enough.

Jasper and I peered into the doorway she indicated and saw vibrant red walls with a yellow and red border. A large oak table with matching chairs took up the majority of the room, lit by the simple chandelier hanging from the ceiling. "Excellent," Jasper murmured. "Looks big enough for our stuff." He stepped in and peered out the window.

I could see around him, and the scene was the same as it was from the other windows in the house: green and trees. Apparently Bella preferred to be away from people. That could be both good and bad. No nosy neighbors curious about who Jasper and I were, but we'd have to keep an extra careful eye out because the Francis family would use her seclusion to their advantage.

Bella was still waiting patiently for us in the kitchen. "So, now what?"

"Now we set up," Jasper answered, grinning at her. The bastard loved tinkering with his computer crap.

"Alright, well I have a meeting at ten, but I can help until then," she offered.

"Sure. Well, we'll be good on our own, but we'll be sure to ask you if we need anything," I told her. Most clients treated us like the plague and ran as soon as basic conversation over the details was finished, and I found it odd that while she seemed upset by our presence she was still willing to be helpful. "I'll help Jasper get as much done as we can before you and I leave."

She frowned and raised an eyebrow. "Where are we going?"

Oh, Christ. I thought she was smart. I figured she'd understand what bodyguards do. They fucking _guard bodies_. "Well, like Jasper said, I'm with you all day. Which means I go where you go. _Everywhere_ you go, Bella."

"Are you kidding me?" Her voice raised an octave, and she looked irate. "Sonofa_bitch_!"

Jasper and I exchanged another look. "Um, Bella, what did you think we were here for?" Jasper asked carefully.

She huffed and closed her eyes for a moment. "All Jacob told me what that you were 'security experts' coming to make sure I was okay for a while. Since _someone_ obviously withheld some important details, why don't you explain it to me?" Her eyes were hard now as she looked between us.

I decided I'd field this one. Short and sweet and you bet your ass I'd be blunt about it. "We're bodyguards, Bella. Whoever this Jacob is, he thinks you need our services because you're being targeted by the Francis family, the same family who are the main suspects in your parents' deaths. Jacob hired us to invade your privacy and keep you safe until we're sure you're no longer in danger from them, and we have no idea how long that will take."

She looked stunned, and I could see pain and anger and… _embarrassment_ flicker across her face. "So you're here because of my parents dying and this family wants _me_ dead now too? _Why?_ What about my brother? Are Emmett and Rosalie targets too?"

"We think they think you and your brother know whatever it was that killed your parents and need to tie up loose ends. There's another team that is with Emmett and Rosalie too, for the same reason we're here," I explained. "Bella, did your father ever talk to you about the Francis family? Did he mention anything out of the ordinary happening around Forks?"

She frowned again, looking thoughtful. "Nothing really stands out, no. He seemed maybe a little more agitated towards the end, but he never let on about anything specific. I have some of his work files that he kept at home, so maybe you guys can look through them to see if you find anything."

"We'll take a look at those later. Since we're in a little bit of a time crunch," I checked my watch and saw that it was almost nine, "Jasper and I will get started checking things out and setting things up." She nodded, excusing herself to prepare for her meeting, and we got to we unloaded all of our shit from the Volvo and dropped our personal items in the spare bedroom, we began turning the dining room into our security base. After Jasper had his beloved fucking laptops set up all over the table, we first surveyed the outside of the house and property to see where cameras would have to be set up. Jasper had wireless cameras that could be set up to two hundred yards from the house and send a clear picture and sound to his machinery. After clearing with Bella where her property line cut off and where it crossed with anyone else's property, we began setting up cameras every twenty yards in the trees around her house, starting fifty yards from the house and working our way in. Every angle would be covered. A fucking chipmunk could fart in the woods, and Jasper would know it happened.

Once that was finished, it was about time for Bella to leave for her meeting. I had no idea what this meeting was about, but since she was a teacher, I assumed it would be a really fucking boring teacher meeting. Joy of joys. While we were gone, Jasper would work on tapping her phone lines and setting up cameras and alarms around the interior of the house.

She was waiting for me by the front door with a briefcase and her purse. She'd added a dark blue sweater vest that was tailored to her figure and set off her skin nicely. She had a pretty nice body from what I could see. Hmmm.

_Give it up, Cullen, she's a fucking job. You don't fuck a job,_ I berated myself, almost laughing at my wording.

"Ready to go?" she asked, looking at me expectantly. She jiggled her keys nervously.

I remembered something at the last second. "Just a sec," I said, turning from her and heading for the spare bedroom. I rummaged around in my bag and found what I was looking for before heading back to the foyer.

I held up the bulletproof vest, refusing to look her in the eye. "You need to put this on."

**So how was it? Review and let me know! Next chapter we'll see BPOV for her insight on the situation!**


	5. No Surprises

**Sorry this took so long, guys. School just sucks. Plus I'm so impatient to get to the more exciting stuff that I'm having a hard time setting everything up to get there.**

**Mucho thanks to my beta, feistyyoungbeden for being the grammar genius she is. She is the comma queen.**

(Song: 'No Surprises' by Radiohead. The words apply to Bella's feelings about her parents' deaths and the situation in which she finds herself with needing bodyguards and not knowing why. Much thanks to sareeswfla/BeccaGraymoor for the song and reasoning. Nothing in my library fit this chapter, so she did me a solid and recc'ed it for me.)

**BPOV**

It was official: God hated me. I had no doubt of that fact anymore.

Not only did he let my parents die, he decided to let my best friend Jacob feel the need to hire _bodyguards_ for my brother and me. I got bodyguards that had to live with me until whatever danger I was supposedly in passed, intruding upon my life in every way. I shuddered at the thought.

Oh, but wait, it got better. Not only did I have to have bodyguards, I got _hot_ bodyguards. Then I realized that I knew one of them. I'd gone to high school with _one of them_. I'd had a giant crush on _one of fucking them_ in high school.

That's right, folks. I was going to be babysat by Edward fucking Cullen. He was going to be intimately aware of my life and everything I did, which made me blush in embarrassment just thinking about it.

I was invisible in high school, just like I told Edward when he introduced himself on my doorstep. I preferred life that way back then. I still prefer it now, though I'm a little more confident since college and getting a job as a high school teacher. However, in high school, I wished I was _somehow_ just special enough to not be completely invisible to Edward. It was a crush from afar; I'd never spoken to him and I don't think he ever noticed me in any of the classes we had together.

Of course, he didn't seem to notice anybody when we were in school. He never seemed to have a girlfriend, always turned down skanks like Jessica and Lauren, and seemed fairly solitary in general. He always looked… intense. Intense and frustrated and sad. I remember wishing I was bold enough to just talk to him, see if I could be the one person to get him to open up and share why we were lonely creatures. I used to imagine going up to him at lunch, introducing myself and then acting on my newfound confidence to become friends with him. That obviously never happened.

Looking at him while he was in my house, following me while I showed him and Jasper around, I noticed he had grown more into a man. He'd been tall and lanky in high school, cool and graceful with his messy bronze hair and mysterious green eyes. Since high school he'd filled out a little. His body was no longer lanky but lean and lithe, his body clad in a black button-down shirt and black pants, looking like he'd participated in sports or… hm. Perhaps being a bodyguard makes you sexy.

_No!_ I scolded myself. No sexy. He was my bodyguard, an intrusion and nuisance into my life. This thought reminded me to give Jacob a piece of my mind when I got back from my meeting later. Edward was not going to be the Kevin Costner to my Whitney Houston.

I busied myself getting things together for my meeting while Edward and Jasper had disappeared outside. They were putting surveillance cameras around my property so Jasper could keep an eye on everything. I shivered at the thought of people coming for me. I had no idea why, and I couldn't possibly understand why Jacob would feel the need to have Edward and Jasper here for me, and whoever guarding Emmett and Rosalie. I'd have to ask Jake what he knew that he wasn't telling me. If he thought Emmett needed someone it must be way worse than he was letting on.

I chuckled when I thought of Rosalie and how she was reacting to their bodyguards. I bet she had a few choice words for Jacob once she found out it was his idea to have them. I could hear her now, throwing curses and threats; see her blue eyes glinting with malice. It wouldn't matter that Jacob had at least a head of height on her or that he had a build like a boxer. She was perfect for my brother that way; Emmett was big and burly and all kinds of goofy, but Rosalie set him straight and managed to make him a softy.

I sighed as I shuffled papers together into my briefcase. I really wished I had the time to call Jacob and find out what this is all about. I was getting a little scared thinking about something happening to me like it did my parents. I had no idea why they died. Edward had explained that Jacob suspected the Francis family of killing my parents for something Charlie had come across at work and that I could possibly next. What in the world could be happening in Forks that would cause someone to kill him? Did he know something worth dying for? Did I, by association or in passing, know the same thing and now have a target on my back?

I shuddered at the thought and closed my eyes, trying to push away any anxiety over the situation. I didn't want to freak out if it really wasn't anything, but I couldn't help the heavy feeling in my stomach. Later I'd look at the files I had my father had kept for his personal use and see if there was anything I should be concerned about. I'd let Jasper and Edward look at them and see if their trained eyes could find anything I couldn't.

Checking my watch for the time, I hoped the guys were almost done outside. If Edward had to accompany to my meeting we needed to leave soon. It was a pre-academic-year meeting to make sure things were going to go well for the year and coordinate any curriculum links throughout the grades. My lesson plans were ready for the first month, and I knew the other junior level teachers were prepared for the year. We were the most prepared group in the high school and had been since I'd started working there.

I froze on my way to the foyer when I realized I'd have to somehow justify Edward's presence with me until this bodyguard fiasco was over. Teacher's aide? That couldn't work. I didn't have enough students in my classes to need another faculty member to help me out, or any special needs kids that would require an aide. I doubt Edward somehow had the training or knowledge to handle special needs students in the first place, so I'm glad that façade wouldn't be required. It had to be something that would be believable enough to account for his being there daily.

Ah, college student. He could be a "college student" who was around for observations as a requirement for his degree. He was too old to really pass for an undergraduate without questions about why he was still an undergrad at his age so we'd have to go with a graduate student. I hoped Principal Campbell would believe the lie. It's not like we hadn't had students come down from Seattle for observation or even student teaching, but it wasn't a common occurrence in a place like Port Angeles.

It wasn't long before Edward joined me in the foyer. I was about to lead him to the garage when he remembered he needed to grab something before we left. I waited impatiently while he went down the hall, presumably to the spare bedroom where he and Jasper had stored their stuff earlier. He came back holding two unidentifiable black lumps, one in each hand.

His eyes didn't meet mine as he held one up and said, "You need to put this on."

I recognized the lump in his hand as a bulletproof vest, and I narrowed my eyes at him. "Surely you jest."

His eyes flashed up to mine, glittering with annoyance. "No. I'm not _jesting_. Put it on."

"What the hell do I need one of those for?" I hissed, gesturing at it.

"You're a cop's daughter," he retorted, "You know why the hell you need one. Put it the fuck on or I'll put it on for you."

"I know what they're for, but I don't know why I need one right this minute," I argued. "It seems unnecessary. And if you come near me and force it on me, I will kick your ass."

He grinned at the challenge. "I'd like to see you try it, princess." Before I could say another word he jerked the vest over my head and efficiently fastened the Velcro straps around my waist.

I was so shocked at his actions that I spluttered, speechless, as he strapped his own vest on with a smug and satisfied look. I reacted in my outrage by swinging my briefcase at him which, of course, he blocked, grabbing my wrist to keep me from trying again. Fucker had mad reflexes, I'd grant him that. I suppose it was stupid to even try to get one in on a bodyguard in the first place.

"Stop it," he hissed. "Just calm the fuck down. I know you don't want us here; we get it. No one does, but it's our job. We're not here to punish you; we're here to protect you, and it's going to suck until we get used to each other. Life will be much easier for us all if you just listen once in a while and don't fight over everything." He let out a breath, looking a little calmer. "Now, if I let you go are you going to swing at me again?"

I sighed, dropping my eyes to the ground. He was right. It would be easier if I just tried to coexist with them. They couldn't feel comfortable doing this all the time. "No," I promised quietly. I looked up at him again, residual anger causing me to glare. "But no more of that macho man bullshit and forcing things on me. You've got to respect boundaries regardless of your job."

"Yeah, okay. Sorry about that." He didn't really sound sorry. Ass. "Next time, just listen. I don't tell you to do something because I get a kick out of it. I'm doing it because it will help protect you. Got it?"

Oh, I got it. You man, me woman, job or not. "Fuck you, Cullen," I seethed, turning and stalking through the kitchen to the door that lead to the garage. The vest was bulky and rubbed my arms funny. No way was I keeping it on once we got to the school. I didn't care if I got sniped; I was not going to wear it in front of my colleagues or boss. This situation was bad enough as it was. I didn't need anything to complicate life any more than necessary.

I yanked open the door and stepped into the garage, heading for my rusted heap of a truck. I know it wasn't practical to have and was probably older than my parents, but it was something my dad had bought for me in high school, and I managed to keep her alive all of these years. The old girl and I had memories.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," I heard Edward mutter as I pushed the button for the garage door to lift. I smiled with grim satisfaction as I climbed into the cab of my car. "We are not taking this heap."

"Yes, we are," I replied, sticking the key into the ignition. "You could always drive yourself." And with that I slammed my door shut and started the truck.

He rolled his eyes in disgust and walked around to the passenger side. Damn, he was a graceful man. _No, no, no, he's a dick, remember?_

_So? He's a pretty dick. I wonder what his dick… NO! STOP IT!_

I shook my head, feeling a blush warm my face as I reached across the seat to unlock the passenger door. I refused to look his way as he climbed in and buckled up. I put the truck into gear and backed out of the garage, pushing the remote to close the garage door before roaring away from the house.

"Why do you drive this ancient piece of shit?" he yelled over the engine. "Do they not pay you enough at the school or what?"

I was instantly defensive. How dare he call my truck a piece of shit? I know she wasn't pretty, and I knew she was loud and couldn't go particularly fast, but she was mine. "She and I have history. I just can't get rid of her if she still works." I scowled at the road before speaking again. "Besides, Charlie bought this for me in high school. There are memories."

He didn't say anything to that, and we rode in silence for a few minutes. I decided to tell him the plan for allowing him to be with me at school all the time.

"So if you're required to be with me at all times, I'm assuming this means while I'm at work too?" I asked, just in case I didn't need this plan. My hopes of not needing it were dashed when he nodded. "OK, so I came up with a plan that I hope my principal will buy so that life is less complicated for the both of us and you can still stalk me throughout the day."

He rolled his eyes. "Holy hell, Bella, it's not like I'll be up your ass the whole time."

I shot him a look in response. "Close enough. Anyway, the plan is that you'll be a graduate student from UW who is coming to observe me and my classes. I'm hoping our little arrangement won't last beyond the fall semester because I don't know how I'll explain your being around another semester without student teaching. UW students have come to observe in Port Angeles before to shadow teachers so that's nothing new, and I think we can make it work, therefore allowing you to follow me wherever I go."

He considered for a moment before nodding. "Alright, sounds like a plan. Plausible and hopefully keeps outsiders out of danger from knowing the truth of why I'm really around. Do you need documentation or anything for this?"

I chewed on my bottom lip as I thought. "I'm not sure, but if I let Principal Campbell know, then I'm sure she'll let me know what all I need. I haven't had anyone observe my class specifically before. Can you get some documentation?"

He looked at me as if it were obvious. "Of course. I'm sure Jasper can work his magic and have whatever you need."

"Don't look at me like I'm stupid, Jump Street," I rebuked icily. "I'm not familiar with the world in which you work."

"Sorry," he said, again sounding like he wasn't even remotely remorseful.

The rest of the drive was spent in silence, and I prayed internally that it wouldn't be hard to convince Principal Campbell about Edward's "schoolwork." She was a nice woman, friendly but fair, and she knew her stuff as an administrator. I respected her greatly, which made me feel even worse for having to lie to her.

Edward and I arrived at the high school a few minutes later, and I pulled into the lot. I managed to convince Edward that I didn't need the vest to walk from my truck to the building since it would be difficult to explain to any colleagues should they see me in it. He walked awfully close to me though, and I felt the same sort of energy from him that I had when we had shaken hands at my house.

When we found the room the meeting was to be held in, a few teachers were already there, including my friend Angela. She was a junior level teacher as well, her specialty being European history. I greeted her quietly, wondering at her perplexed look at Edward, before spotting Principal Campbell speaking to another teacher. I headed over with Edward to wait my turn to speak to her. I spent the time waiting to calm myself down so I could be convincing enough to her about Edward being around.

Once she was finished with the other teacher, Principal Campbell greeted me warmly, and I introduced them to Edward. I managed to keep my stammering to a minimum as I explained that Edward was a graduate student who was assigned to observe me for the semester. Edward was perfectly polite to Principal Campbell, explaining how excited he was to observe and learn from me to be a better educator. I was envious of how smoothly he seemed to adapt and manipulate situations like a chameleon, but I assumed it was necessary in his line of work. Principal Campbell was excited that Edward was going to be observing in our school, praised my teaching skills as something worth learning from, and told me that he needed his paperwork turned in by the first day of classes. Edward gave me a pointed look which I interpreted as _Jasper will take care of it, we're covered._

The actual meeting went as expected with the expectations for the year being outlined, what each grade level anticipated completing this year, and any foreseeable problems with rooms or equipment. I noticed Angela kept glancing at Edward, almost as if she recognized him but couldn't quite place him, and it made me nervous. If she asked about him I'd have to tell her the same thing I'd told the principal. It was easier for everyone and probably safer as well. It wasn't that I didn't trust Angela; she was a dear friend to me, though not close, but I didn't want to drag her into whatever mess my life had turned into. It was also best that she was in the dark about it in case something happened and this spilled into her life. She could safely and plausibly deny anything.

I snapped out of my rumination when I heard Principal Campbell thanking us for coming and hoping we all had a great school year before dismissing us.

Edward turned to me looking relieved. "Thank God," he murmured, stretching his arms in front of him. "So do you have a few minutes before we head out? Is there anything else you need to do?"

I shook my head. "I was just going back home. What's up?"

"I want to check out the layout of the school, see how everything is, emergency exits, possible escape routes, things like that," he explained. "Just in case."

I nodded, unable to speak after he said "possible escape routes." I hoped nothing bad enough happened that we'd have to _escape_ the school. What would happen with my students? Would we herd them out too, or just leave them wondering? It was something I'd ask him about later. He stood, slipping out of the room unnoticed by the other people that hadn't yet left.

"So, Bella, how have you been lately?"

I turned to the quiet voice, smiling at Angela as she looked at me with a smile of her own. I loved how she was a genuine person and always cared about others. When you had a conversation with her you knew she actually listened.

"Things are getting better, Ang," I explained honestly. "Thank you for asking."

She nodded, pleased that I did seem better. The last time I'd seen her was at the funeral, and I know I wasn't my best then.

"Um, so who is that with you?" she asked, the confused look back on her face. "He looks really familiar. Is he a new teacher?"

I let out a breath, steeling myself to recite the lie again. "No, he's a graduate student. His name is Edward Cullen, and he's spending the semester observing my classes and me for his degree."

Her eyes widened. "Edward Cullen? From high school?"

Oh, crap. I forgotten she'd probably remember him. Aloof as he was in high school, that didn't stop people from knowing the illustrious Edward Cullen. I nodded in confirmation.

"Huh," she murmured. "He didn't strike me as the educator type in high school. It must be awkward having him shadowing you for a semester."

"Not really," I replied, trying to be nonchalant about it. Of course it was awkward, and it most definitely wasn't because of his supposed "shadowing." "It's not like we really knew each other in high school, but it sort of helps us get past any initial awkwardness you'd have with a stranger."

"True," she conceded. "Well, I hope it all goes well for you. I'm sure you'll teach him a lot. You're a great teacher." The genuine tone in her voice touched me.

I blushed at her comment. "Thank you, Angela."

"You're welcome," she answered, rising from her chair. "I have to head out. See you later, Bella."

I said my goodbyes and stood, hoping Edward was almost done with whatever reconnaissance he was doing. Thankfully, he was headed towards me from the science hall when I stepped from the meeting room.

"Finished?" I asked.

"Yep. We can go."

We walked in silence back to my truck. He held the vest out for me again when we were in the cab, and I put it on without a fuss. It wouldn't do to have someone see us fighting in my truck and raise questions. The drive home was also quiet, and I was thankful. I was exhausted and didn't want to think about anything but what I needed to do for work. And my writing. I had a secret dream of being a writer, maybe being published someday, but I doubted it would happen. So to delude myself, I wrote with the false intention of trying to get it published someday so that I was inspired to keep going.

Once we were back home and parked in the garage, I peeled the vest off and handed it back to Edward, which he took without a word. I wondered if he was just processing everything or if something was on his mind. I didn't want to ponder it right now and didn't feel like prying either. We didn't know each other well enough to allow me to ask him.

I was hungry and knew cooking would soothe me. "Do you or Jasper have any food allergies? Anything in particular you don't eat?" I asked as we walked into the kitchen. I didn't see Jasper in the dining room, so I assumed he was in the house setting up whatever other security measures that needed tending to.

"No, we pretty much eat anything," he replied.

I began pulling sandwich makings out of the refrigerator and set them on the island. "Alright. I'm too tired to make anything fancy right now, so it's just sandwiches. I'll figure something out for dinner later."

He watched me, looking a little uncomfortable. "Um, you don't have to cook for us. We're pretty self-sufficient. No need to put yourself out."

I gave him a small smile, pulling the bread out of the bread box. "I don't mind. I love cooking, but it hardly seems worth it when it's just me. I'm actually a little glad I have someone to cook for. So, what would you like?"

He just looked at me for a moment with an indecipherable expression on his face. I bet he didn't have anyone cooking for him on a regular basis. He let me make him a sandwich to his liking, and I sent him to find Jasper so I could make him something as well.

Our heads turned towards the kitchen window when we heard a car pull into the driveway. I spotted the car that just finished parking, and my jaw dropped.

"That son of a bitch has a lot of nerve," I hissed, dropping the knife I'd been using to spread mustard and stalking to the door.

**This chapter is dedicated to my lovely ladies over in the 'Twilight' and 'Unicorns Unlimited' forums over on Ravelry. You guys seriously kept me de-stressed enough to get this written and are the best friends I've never seen. ******

**Alright, it's time to let me know how I did. Please read and review? I'm getting plenty of read hits, so thank you! Now let me know what you think!**


	6. Gives You Hell

**Sorry this chapter took so long. I really wanted to try to stick with once a week updates, but with school, homework, my senior recital coming up that I have to practice for, student teaching BS, and general RL angst, it took some time. It's also hard to get into Thugward's state of mind when I'm thinking about how to conduct an imaginary choir singing "For Unto Us A Child Is Born" for my conducting class.**

**Thanks once again to my beta, feistyyoungbeden for being my continuity maintainer and just awesome in general, and Sarah/Becca Graymoor for being my muse and generally letting me bitch to her about how tough a time I'm having… with life and writing. You guys rock, along with mah bbs in the Rav forums!**

**My stuff: my recital dress (FINALLY); a CD of The University of New Mexico Wind Symphony; eighty bucks in recital music.**

**Not my stuff: 'Twilight' or it's characters. Or a strong grip on my sanity. Ha.**

(Songs: "Gives You Hell" by The All-American Rejects; "Stinging Sitars" by Anjali; "Nineveh" by E.S. Posthumus. "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse is a good one too. Meanings in general, nothing specific. They just sorta stuck while I was writing.)

**EPOV**

I wanted to gouge my eyes out. Maybe rip out my fingernails, one by one. Anything to survive this meeting without dying from boredom.

After passing the test with the principal of the school, I sat next to Bella and pretended I was interested in the upcoming curriculum expectations in another underfunded Washington school. Instead of indulging in my masochistic tendencies I decided to ponder this situation that brought Jasper and me into Bella's life.

I knew her father was the police chief in Forks. I knew, now anyway, that the Francis family had a branch operating somewhere in the vast fucking woods on the outskirts of Forks. I knew that Charlie had found something out about the shit happening in said woods. That's what ended his life. What I didn't know was why the fuck they could be after Bella. Charlie was taken out, and since Bella was in no way involved with Charlie's work, she couldn't possibly know what Charlie knew. Which brought me back to square one: why the hell was she a target?

From what Jasper and I had learned over our time in the company, the Francis family was into drugs. Meth was their specialty, and they apparently had the best in the greater Seattle area. Their goddamn money managed to keep them out of any major legal trouble, which frustrated the Seattle PD and the local Feebs to no end. We had no intention of being the heroes that brought them down and saved the world from a meth empire. We just had to keep Bella from being killed by it.

I was brought back to the present by the teachers smiling and getting up from the meeting table, and judging from their relieved expressions the godforsaken meeting must have been over.

"Thank God," I muttered, turning to Bella as she packed up her briefcase. "So do you have a few minutes before we head out? Is there anything else you need to do?"

She shook her head and mentioned just going back home before asking why I asked in the first place.

"I want to check out the layout of the school, see how everything is, emergency exits, possible escape routes, things like that," I explained quietly, standing. "Just in case." She nodded her assent, worry evident in her eyes.

I left her in the meeting room, slipping unnoticed into the halls. After exploring both floors of the small high school and noting all of the emergency exits as well as the non-conventional possibilities, I headed back to the meeting room. Bella was just coming out as I turned the corner.

"Finished?" she asked, still looking a little worried. She bit into her bottom lip with her teeth, and I found myself unable to look away, wondering how fucking soft that lip was.

"Yep. We can go." I had to turn away before she saw that I was staring at her mouth like a fucking dog lusting after a steak. _Christ on a fucking cracker, Cullen. Chill the fuck out. Stay professional. No need to practically get wood because she bites her lip._

We walked back to her truck in silence, and I was thankful she didn't fight with me on the vest again when I handed it to her. She probably figured she'd draw the attention of her coworkers and would be mortified. It would make life harder for the both of us if they did notice.

I'd like to say that the silence in the cab was deafening on the ride home, but the ancient truck's goddamn engine was taking care of the deafening part on its own. I loathed the vehicle at first sight and longed to take the Volvo. We'd discuss that possibility when we got back to her house. The truck's engine alone would be a loud fucking beacon of her whereabouts if she were being followed by anyone. That's the reason I'd use anyway. It was a plausible one, and she'd see the logic in it.

Once back at her place, she asked about food. I felt awkward when she mentioned cooking for us. We were self-sufficient enough to make our own food, and it just seemed wrong that we would impose even further on her. She told me it was no burden for her since it would be a nice change to cook for others. I felt a little guilty that she would put herself out like that, but I was also touched that she could be that kind after her life had been invaded by us. She had me hunt up Jasper while she made my sandwich, and I found him setting up window alarms in her room.

"Dude, she's making lunch," I said from the doorway as he tightened the screws of a sensor to her sill. "She wanted me to come find you so you could eat."

He stopped and looked at me with a grin. "She'll cook for us? Did she volunteer?" I nodded, telling him she liked cooking. "Man, if I didn't adore your sister, I'd definitely try my luck with Bella." He put his tools down and followed me back out to the kitchen.

For some reason this irked me. Fuck if I knew why, but I didn't let on in any case. It was irrational, and I didn't need more ammo for Jasper to taunt me with. He already had enough things to tease me about.

Bella was almost done with my sandwich when we heard a car pulling into her driveway. All three of us looked out the kitchen window to see who it was.

"That son of a bitch has a lot of nerve," I heard her seethe. I was glad she dropped the knife then because I'd hate to be on the receiving end of her temper _and_ a knife. She stalked to the door, and I followed her, prepared to shield her from whoever this was, but she stopped me with a wicked glare and a raised hand.

I looked at Jasper, and he shrugged. I wanted to follow her., I should have since we were supposed to be guarding her and we didn't know this guy from Adam, but she was seriously peeved and looked ready to inflict bodily harm. We turned our attentions back to the window. I inched over to the door to watch the action from the screen door. A tall man with dark skin and long black hair unfolded himself from a black Volkswagen Rabbit. His features suggested he was of Native American descent with dark eyes, high cheekbones, and full lips. He looked like he worked out and was dressed in a grey T-shirt and black jeans, scuffed boots on his feet. He had a grin on his face as he watched Bella rush to him. I felt a twang of _something_ as he held his arms out to her affectionately like he'd done it a million times.

Bella's course never swayed, and my jaw dropped as she stopped in front of him, drew her arm back, and slapped him across the face. I looked at Jasper, and he was still staring out of the kitchen window with an expression similar to mine.

"Oh, she's a special one," I chuckled, finally deciding to take action. If she caused a big enough scene people might hear, and I didn't want her to garner any unwanted attention that could make her a fucking beacon to whoever wanted her in the first place. I jogged out to Bella right as she began using her fists to pound on his chest. I could make out words like, "Who the hell," and "fucking asshole," and my favorite: "So help me fucking God, Jacob Black, did you forget the memo from Susan B. Anthony?! The one—" She let out a yelp as my arms wrapped around her waist to pull her away and sent me a pointed glare before finishing her thought. "You know, the one about women making decisions for _themselves_?"

She struggled against me, kicking her feet out in an attempt to get any last licks in and screaming for me to let her go as I pulled her away. Good Lord, she smelled so nice, all sweet and flowery, and the way she was moving, writhing in my grip… Holy hell, woman, stop it! I could get serious fucking wood from this encounter, and it was nowhere close to an ideal situation to warrant my body's reaction. Not to mention completely unprofessional.

"Whoa, easy, killer," I muttered, dragging her back towards the front door. Jacob just watched the scene with a shit-eating grin on his face. I had to dodge Bella's flailing arms so she didn't knock me in the face, and her ass kept grinding into my groin. _Fuck!_ "Quit it, Bella! For fuck's sake, stop flailing like a two year old!"

"Fuck off, copper top, and let me the fuck go!" she yelled, grasping for the doorjamb with her hands as I pulled her into the house. Fortunately her hands scrambled but didn't make purchase on the wood, and I set her on her feet in the foyer.

"Stay," I commanded between my teeth. "No sense in assaulting someone who is three times your size and apparently finds it hilarious that you're even trying. So calm the fuck down."

She huffed, pushing stray strands of hair that had escaped her ponytail from her face. Thankfully, she didn't say anything else, but she glared over my shoulder. I turned and saw that Jacob had followed us up to the front door and his smile had turned into quiet chuckles.

"Jacob Black," he began, holding out his hand for me. I shook it firmly. "The reason you're here and she's pissed."

"Edward," I replied, stepping aside to let him in. Bella made a strangled sound, and I silenced her with a look, tired of her attitude and genuinely curious about the guy who had hired us. I immediately regretted being a dick, but before I could apologize she huffed again before flipping me off and storming into the kitchen. Jacob and I followed her. Jasper was sitting at the counter, munching on a sandwich he must have made while I was risking my life and manhood outside. Prick. Bella was making herself a sandwich, practically mauling her bread when she forcefully spread condiments onto it.

"Bells, don't be mad at me," Jacob said, trying to keep another smile from his face. "You know you're not really angry at me."

Bella threw him a glare to end all glares, and possibly all lives if looks could actually kill. "Of course I am angry with you, Jacob," she said quietly, returning her attention back to her sandwich. "How about I send two strangers to invade _your_ life without a clue as to why? And how about you get into a tussle with one of them and watch him force a bulletproof vest on you like a child? Oh and how about they set up cameras all over the place and follow you to _your_ place of employ and basically stalk you because they're paid to? Silly me. I shouldn't be angry at you at all about this. I mean it's not like you're the one _insisting and paying_ for this nonsense and then laughing at me for my inconvenience." She took a big bite and continued to glare at him as she chewed.

Ah, so this was the guy paying for us to be here. She kept referring to Jacob hiring us earlier, but I hadn't pieced it together right away. I wondered how he managed to afford us. His car wasn't the greatest thing, and he wasn't dressed in a manner belying wealth, but one never knew. Hm. I'd have Jasper look him up later.

Jasper watched the entire exchange with an amused look on his face. Bastard loved the drama but would in no way help diffuse the situation. He stood, rinsed his plate off in the sink, and turned to Bella. He was about to speak when a beeping noise sounded from the dining room. He rushed in and began looking at the monitors.

"Shit, I knew the cameras would be a good idea," he muttered when the rest of us followed him.

"What's going on?" Bella asked, her anger forgotten and replaced with concern.

"The cameras picked up movement in the woods," he replied, looking with a keen eye at the monitor showing the different angles in the trees behind Bella's house. "I have them set to pick up movement of larger bodies on two legs, since there are deer all over the place and I can't come running every time one of them ventures close to your house. So that beeping means people are wandering the woods." He peered closely at one angle. "Shit. I thought it'd be hunters, but they certainly aren't dressed like hunters." He turned and began fiddling with the keyboard. Soon we could hear the noise of the woods and rustling.

Bella looked at me for answers, and I put a finger to my lips. If Jasper put the audio for all of us to hear, there must be something big, and we needed to listen. I knew he was recording everything to begin with, all footage and audio being sent to a secure server at the office in Seattle. The rustling got a little louder, and we could hear voices coming from the speakers.

"Are we close?" It was a man's voice, raspy and deep. "The house is close by, right?"

"Yeah," another male voice answered. This one wasn't as deep, higher and possibly younger. "I think I see it a ways up there."

"We're just checking shit out, right? We ain't supposed to do anything?" the first voice asked.

"No, we don't do anything," voice two replied. "We don't want to end up like Rory. He fucked up big by taking out her parents before we got what we needed. We just check out the situation with the daughter, see if we can find anything, see if she knows anything."

I heard Bella gasp and saw her turn into Jacob, whose arms wrapped around her protectively. He didn't seem to care now that she had been a shrilly harpy not ten minutes ago and beating on him like a punching bag. Well shit, this was something real. There were people actually out to get her, and we still didn't know why.

"How far out are they, Jasper?" I whispered, still staring at the monitors. Now I could see two guys wandering through the trees and foliage. Both were white males, average height, dressed in dark clothing. One had dark hair and Mediterranean features while the other had lighter brown hair and a more European complexion.

"About forty-five yards out since we can see them on the cams," he replied, still raptly watching the screens. "Do you wanna go confront them, or wait for their move?"

"Let's just see what they do. If they try to sneak in or something, we're here, we've got it covered," I replied quietly.

Jasper nodded, and we all turned back to the screens to watch. Nothing else was said between the two fuckers in the woods, but they kept creeping closer to the house, passing from the range of one camera to another.

After a few minutes voice one, which I could now see belonged to the asshole with the lighter hair, spoke again. "What'd he say she drove again?"

"Some rusted piece of shit truck that's older than us combined," the dark haired prick answered.

"Shit," Asshole hissed, stopping. They were still well into the woods, but close enough that we could most likely spot them if we squinted through the glass doors in the living room.

"What?" Prick asked. I could see his head bobbing around on the screen like he'd heard something. His head would turn snap around once in a while like he was watching his back. I wonder if he was afraid of what could lurk in the woods. Probably never spent a day outside of suburbia in his life.

"Her truck ain't there, but there's a nice silver car and an old VW POS. There's people there," Asshole answered, kicking at the ground. "If you want to join Rory at the bottom of Puget Sound, be my guest, but Boss Man said only her, no one else. We can't touch her unless she's alone."

I felt immense relief at his words, grateful we were here to prevent something from happening to her. I almost felt an irrational anger that she was stupid enough to live alone, far from people and too close to the woods, but she was a grown woman. I chanced a glance at Bella. Her face was pale, and her mouth was slack. She'd heard what they'd said. She knew this shit was real now and that they wanted to take her, if not just to harm her, then something worse. We fucking needed to find out why they wanted her, what she had that made her a target. This shit was getting too close.

"Well fuck. Boss Man ain't gonna be happy," Prick answered. He sounded almost… relieved? Interesting. "We'll tell him. He'll figure something out so we can get the bitch." My blood boiled at the term he used for Bella. I know I'd called her a bitch in my head earlier, but just hearing this guy say it made my blood boil. Fucker. He'd get his if I saw him again.

_What the hell, Cullen? You're supposed to protect her, but shit. It isn't as if she's your fucking girlfriend you need to defend._

Why the hell was I thinking this way? She was beautiful, no doubt about that, and I was a little miffed at never noticing her in high school. She was also smart, kind, and had a hell of a temper that made her feisty enough to be interesting.

_Fuck! Stop thinking of her like that! She's a job, and you're only interested because you haven't gotten laid in a while._

I really wanted to shut that internal voice up sometimes, but it was probably right in this situation. I was most likely just thinking that way because I needed to get laid and she was a single woman I'd be spending tons of time with for the unforeseeable future.

I shook my head internally and refocused my attention on the screen again. The two men were now backtracking the way they came, contemplating between themselves how angry "Boss Man" would be because they couldn't get Bella yet. Prick was convinced they were fucked no matter what, but Asshole was assuring him that it wasn't their fault she had people around to prevent it.

_Damn skippy_, I thought. _We'll always be here until you assholes learn she's untouchable._

"Christ, Bells," Jacob said, breaking the silence. "Only your bad luck could draw hit men to you from the woods like a fucking slasher film." He was trying to lighten the mood, and while it didn't make anyone laugh, his comment caused Bella to glare at him and pull away.

"Shut up, Jake," she spat at him, wandering back into the kitchen. She grabbed a glass from the cupboard by the refrigerator and busied herself by filling it with water and taking a sip. "How Carlie manages to tolerate you twenty-four/seven is beyond me."

Jacob smiled sweetly at her, batting his eyelashes at her over the counter. "I'm just so damn cute, and she is madly in love with me," he replied. "And I also keep my woman happy. She can't resist my--"

"Jacob!" Bella interrupted, holding her hand up. "Some things need to remain a secret. Don't you have to go to work? What the hell are you doing here terrorizing me in the early afternoon?"

"Well, Bells, I love you too." He laughed when she rolled her eyes. "I just wanted to check and make sure everything was okay here with these guys. I'm headed to work in a few minutes."

She eyed him for a minute like she was trying to figure him out. Her eyes narrowed. "Jake, how are you able to afford this setup?" she asked, motioning to the dining room where Jasper and I were still watching the monitors. "This can't be cheap, and there's no way you make enough at the garage. I also know Carlie would never let you waste any of her money on this ridiculous crap either. What gives?"

Jacob laughed and straightened up, walking around the island to throw an arm around Bella's shoulders and giving her a squeeze. "Well I know your luck, Bells, and I decided that'd I'd start a 'Save Bella from Dying from Bad Luck' fund because I knew you'd either trip over air and almost kill yourself or do _something_ Bella-like that would need financial help." He laughed harder when she smacked his chest and stepped away from him, throwing him another dirty look.

"Why do you feel the need to be an ass all the time, Jake?" she muttered. She didn't protest when he pulled her into a crushing hug and even hugged back after a second. "But seriously, you can't afford bodyguards. This is way out of what you can afford at your job, and Carlie only makes so much as a receptionist."

"I just worry about you, hon," he murmured, kissing her cheek. He released her and kissed the top of her head before stepping back. "It doesn't matter where the money comes from. I'm not doing anything illegal for it and it's no skin off me. Okay, I'm heading to work. Take care of her, you two," he said to me and Jasper. "It's a full-time job even without anyone coming for her."

"Goodbye, Jacob," Bella announced, voice thick with annoyance as she herded him towards the door.

"Bye, Bells," he replied, laughing again as he disappeared out of the door. A minute later we heard his car start and the sound of the engine fading away.

I stepped into the kitchen. My stomach was starting to bother me now that there was nothing to worry about, and I hadn't gotten the sandwich Bella had started for me earlier.

She was staring out the kitchen window, lost in worried thought.

"Are you alright?" I asked quietly, stepping beside her and putting a hand on her arm. That strange tingle worked up my arm, and I pulled my hand away, almost regretting the loss of contact. I didn't know what the fuck that was, but I'd never felt it when I touched anyone else. I wondered if it was some sort of weird allergic reaction to her or something. _How fucked up would that be? Could people actually be allergic to other people?_

She smiled softly, but it didn't extinguish the worry in her eyes when she turned to look at me. "Not really. I mean, there were two guys that were almost in my backyard talking about kidnapping me or something. It's just so surreal, and it's really scary because I have no idea why they want me in the first place. I'd happily give them whatever they want if I knew exactly what that was so they'd just leave me in peace." She sighed and covered her face with her hands. "They've already taken my parents from me. What else could they possibly take that means anything to me?"

Her voice sounded so fucking sad and lost that I instinctively wrapped my arms around her and held her to me to comfort her. She didn't protest and rested her head on my shoulder. I wondered if she felt the strange fucking tingle too. It was coursing through me where my body was in contact with hers. Feeling it somehow brought forth those protective feelings from earlier, the ones that went beyond my duty as her bodyguard.

She turned her head a little, and I felt her breath on my neck, warm and soft. She pulled her face back to look at me, her eyes heavy and her lips parted. Her breathing seemed a little labored, and I noticed her eyes were moving between my eyes and lips. Her amazingly unique smell permeated the air around us, and I started to lean in before I realized it. I would finally taste her mouth, see for myself how soft and wonderful that bottom lip of hers would feel. I was almost there…

"Hey, Edward," Jasper called from the dining room. Bella and I both jumped, pulling away so that there was a more reasonable amount of space between us, sending us back to our professional roles. Jasper popped his head in from the dining room. "I'm gonna head back and finish in Bella's room. Keep an eye on things?"

I nodded, scowling at him. He disappeared, and I cursed his poor timing. No wonder the South lost the war. They most likely got beat down by the North for being fucking cockblockers.

**So, how was it? Like it? Press that thur Review button down thur and let me know either way!**


	7. Charmer

**Yes, I am alive. Yes, I know it's been about a month since I've posted. All I can say is, I'm sorry, a thousand times over. There shall be a monster A/N at the bottom explaining.**

**As always, thanks to my mastah-beta feistyyoungbeden, and to the ladies in UU for helping me out when I needed inspiration, songs, or just someone to bitch to. You guys rock, srsly.**

**Mine: an audio recording of my recital, more blank journals than I'll ever use, and a jillion pens I'll never write with.**

**Not mine: Twilight or its characters. Or a shitton of money, coz I is broke now. Hahaa.

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**(It's a Kings of Leon sort of chapter, with a little Bruce. 'Charmer' and 'On Call' by Kings of Leon, 'Secret Garden' by Bruce Springsteen. Thanks Jayne and feisty, for the suggestions.)**

**EPOV**

The next few days went by without incident. Prick and Asshole didn't make another appearance in the woods behind Bella's house, nor did any other spies from the Francis camp. Bella pretended everything was normal, but Jasper and I could see the worry when she thought we weren't looking. She tried to pretend everything was fucking hunky-dory when we were around, being her usual chipper-yet-snarky self, but we weren't fooled. That day had shaken her, and she didn't know what to make of it, so she kept on trying to pretend things were normal.

She didn't go out much either, but I suspect it wasn't because of the events earlier in the week. She seemed happier at home, reading on the couch or clacking away on her laptop, occasionally watching a little TV. The radio was always going no matter what, whether it was the system in the living room while she read or the smaller radio in the kitchen while she worked or cooked. Sometimes she sang along, which was fucking entertaining in itself, but sometimes she'd do a little dance as well, which sent my mind along down the path to inappropriate fantasies. I didn't want to think about her that way, didn't want to try to imagine what she tasted like, how she moved when she was aroused.

Fortunately, her brother, Emmett, and his fiancée, Rosalie, were coming to visit today, so that would be a welcome distraction from watching Bella, and thinking about Bella, and… fuck. It was hard to be in a house with only your best friend who was on a different schedule than you, and a woman who was cute enough to possibly star in some fucking incredible fantasies that were completely off-limits. I mean, Bella was cute in a girl-next-door sort of way, more of a classic beauty than a bombshell, but definitely not in the dog end of the spectrum. She was different from the women I'd been with before, and if this wasn't a work thing I might think about taking her out.

Grocery shopping with her yesterday was hilarious. She'd made a meticulous list of everything she'd needed, wrote down the price of everything that went into the cart, and kept the running total the entire trip. What made it even better was when we went to check out and she found out I was paying. Well, the company, but whatever.

"What the hell do you mean I'm not buying?" she seethed quietly, trying not to cause a scene. The cashier watched raptly, her gum snapping as she chewed faster in anticipation.

"When we are with clients, it is company policy to pay for their needs. That means groceries, bills, gas, what-the-fuck-ever," I replied just as quietly, making sure the cashier couldn't hear, "so think of it as Jacob paying for it. He'll be the one billed for everything."

Her eyes widened at that. "Jacob probably can't afford you to begin with, let alone my bills and stuff. We have to put this back."

I stopped her rant with a look. "Christ, Bella, he can somehow afford it. Let it go." I handed the cashier the company credit card and ignored Bella fuming silently next to me. After the transaction was processed we'd loaded up the car, Bella bitching about it the whole time. I tuned her out so she could just run herself down, which finally happened halfway home from the store. She stayed silent until all the groceries were put away. She then kicked me out of the kitchen so she could get things ready, so I'd spend most of the night watching TV, checking on her periodically. She'd spent hours making bread, taking her frustrations out on punching bread dough around and singing Tori Amos off-key. She'd taken a break to make the best fucking chicken noodle soup ever for dinner before resuming her cathartic culinary beatings.

Bella was quite chipper this morning. I knew she wasn't really a morning person, but her brother visiting must have been a big thrill for her. She was cooking up a storm, making some sort of breakfast casserole of eggs, bacon, and potatoes, baked in the oven; tomato and mozzarella sandwiches on the rolls she'd spent last night making from scratch, swearing they were Rosalie's favorite; and a various other assortment sandwich fixings, along with a fresh fruit salad.

"Jesus, Bella, how much food do you need for the four of us?" I asked as I watched her carefully arrange different meats and cheeses on a plate.

"Well, you've never met Emmett, so you don't realize how much. He's a giant compared to me," she replied, staying on task as she talked. Homemade bread was now sliced down and stacked on another plate before being handed to me to be set on the counter that separated the kitchen from the office. Chairs had been brought up from the basement earlier and set up on the now cleared counter space on the office side of the island. "You also forget that your associates are with them," she continued, handing me the bowl of fruit.

Well fuck me, I did forget. James and Victoria were assigned to her brother and Rosalie. I'd have to ask Jasper if he'd heard anything from them, since I hadn't. _Way to be, Cullen. Stay on task, buddy. Quit watching her being all fucking sexy and Martha Stewart and remember you have a job to do. Which isn't doing her._ I sighed and set the fruit next to the plate of bread, trying to settle myself down. I was turning into a damn high school girl or something, pining after a crush. Not that I was pining after Bella. I was just more aware of her than other women and reasoned that I was extremely attracted to her physically.

That's what I told myself, anyway. I wasn't ready to admit that her personality was possibly attractive too and she was a hundred steps above any other woman I'd known in that department.

A car pulling up in the driveway brought me from thoughts of Bella, and I looked out the kitchen window. Jasper came into the kitchen at the same moment, checking out the situation himself. He'd gone to make himself presentable earlier, tearing away from his precious equipment to change into more presentable clothing. The wrinkled tee-shirt and holey khakis wouldn't cut it for guests, and he came out dressed in dark jeans and a light blue button down. His shift was over, but he would be joining us for breakfast before heading to bed.

"Holy Jesus, Bella, your brother is huge," he murmured, running his fingers through his hair.

He wasn't lying. I knew James and Victoria, so it was simple deduction that the tall, obviously muscular man stepping out of the Jeep Wrangler was Emmett. He had short, dark brown hair that curled slightly at the end, his nose and chin exactly like Bella's, even from a distance. He was wearing regular blue jeans, a dark blue tee-shirt that showed he led a physical lifestyle, and sneakers. He seemed to be laughing at something as he shut the driver side door before walking around to help a gorgeous blonde out of the passenger side. She was tall, legs for-fucking-ever, dressed in khaki shorts and a fitted pink tee. Her eyes were hidden by sunglasses, but her pouty lips showed displeasure as she turned and said something to Victoria, who was getting out of the backseat.

Victoria rolled her eyes and shared a chagrined look with James, who was looking on with a smile of his own behind Rosalie's back. Victoria's bright red hair was pulled into a ponytail at the back of her head. She was dressed in jeans and a white tank top, her black combat boots looking worn-in and comfortable. James' arm went around her as they met at the front of the car, and he murmured something to her, his dark hair falling into his eyes, before they both threw their heads back laughing.

James and Victoria were the company's only agents married to each other. They'd been partnered with each other a few years back, and it had apparently been love at first sight. They loved their job, loved each other, and were happy working no matter where it took them, as long as they were together. I couldn't see the appeal myself, since work and life weren't really separated for them, but to each his own, I guess. They were both really good at what they did, so it was obviously working for them, and I'd never heard them fight. They would probably let the other die to save a client without a second thought, and if that was the case they didn't seem to mind the arrangement. No way in hell would I let my wife die over some client. Sayonara, bitches, my wife takes fucking precedent over you. I had no idea how they could do it, but then, I wasn't them.

"Here," Bella said, shoving a pack of shredded cheese into Jasper's hands. "Sprinkle that over the top of that, will you?" She pointed to the casserole that she'd just pulled from the oven and was now cooling on top of the stove. "I'll get the door."

I followed her to the foyer where she pulled open the front door and flung the screen door open. Rosalie pushed her sunglasses up onto her head before stepping inside and opening her arms, enveloping Bella in a hug.

"Oh, Bells, I've missed you!" she said, pulling back to look at Bella, who was grinning widely. "I have so much to tell you about the wedding! We've finally set a date!"

"Really?! Oh it's about time!" Bella replied, squeezing Rosalie's hands before letting go. Rosalie assessed me briefly, eyes narrowing slightly before she offered her hand.

"Rosalie Hale," she stated. "You must be one of the monkeys Jacob sent to Bella."

"Edward Cullen," I replied, shaking her hand. It was soft, but her grip was stronger than anyone would have assumed. Her dark blue eyes told me, _don't fuck with my girl or I'll fuck you up_. I could respect that. I'd be wary of strange guys living with my future sister-in-law, no matter what their purpose for being there.

She moved into the kitchen, introducing herself to Jasper, and I returned my attention to Bella. Emmett stepped inside and literally lifted her up into a hug, squeezing her tightly and swinging her back and forth slightly.

"Bells!" his voice boomed in the little foyer. "How's it going, sis?"

"Too hard, Emmett!" she laughed, and he loosened his grip a little but didn't let go. Her feet were still dangling off the floor by inches. Jesus, the height genes were seriously divided unfairly in this family. When he finally did set Bella down, he was at least a foot taller than her.

"Things are going alright, considering," she replied, glancing at me with a wry smile. I rolled my eyes at her with a smile of my own.

Emmett considered me a moment before offering me his hand as well. "Emmett. Bella's brother. I will not hesitate to kill you if you do anything to her."

Well he didn't fuck around. No threatening looks from him, just blunt honesty. Why the hell did I feel like Bella's date to prom all of the sudden, passing under family scrutiny before heading out? "Edward Cullen," I returned, "and I'd never do anything to her, so no killing needed." The retort was joking enough, but the implication was there. I could take this motherfucker out anyway, despite his size, but there was no need to engage in a pissing contest upon first meeting.

He nodded before flinging his arm around his sister and leading her into the kitchen, peppering her with questions about what was up. His questions stopped when he spotted the spread of food, and he declared that she was the best ever before grabbing a plate to start. Rosalie rolled her eyes and scolded him for being an insufferable brute, but the look in her eyes spoke volumes of her love for him. It would have been nauseating if it weren't so subtle.

"So, Edward, how's it going here?" James' voice distracted me, and I focused on them, all business now. "We haven't had a thing happen down in Olympia, but we're still keeping an eye out. Same here?"

I shook my head. "No. Jasper's set up his camera and security system around the house and property, and a few days ago it picked up some mob jackasses trying to come in from the woods out back. They split when they realized she wasn't alone. Cameras picked up their voices, and they were apparently sent to take her and shake her for whatever information they're looking for, but couldn't engage her unless she was alone. They haven't been back since."

Victoria looked thoughtful. "Does she have any idea why they want her?"

"No. She doesn't have a clue as to why they want her, and she's certain she has no vital knowledge for them." I replied, glancing into the kitchen. Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper were sitting in the chairs set up at the counter, diving into the food, and Bella was picking at a plate of her own, standing on the kitchen side of the counter. She kept throwing quick, worried glances my way, and I tried to give her a reassuring smile when she did.

"Nothing else?" James asked, eyes furrowed slightly as he tried to figure things out. His role of the pair was like mine, the muscles and protector, while Victoria was more the techie and inside man. She was beautiful enough to manipulate well but be forgotten soon after interaction with her. She was a master chameleon who could play her looks down to be just another faceless person in the crowd.

"Not really, no. No threats, no visits. We did get to meet the guy bankrolling this shindig though," I answered. "Jacob Black. I checked him, and he seems kosher. Airplane mechanic in Seattle, living with Carlie Daniels on the Quileute reservation near Port Angeles. Nothing pops."

"An airplane mechanic can afford not one, but two sets of bodyguards from _our_ company?" Victoria wondered aloud. We all knew we weren't cheap, especially with the whole paying for the customer and billing the person requesting our services. These sorts of things could take a long time, and the expenses tended to rack up.

"Yeah, somehow. He doesn't seem like the sort to be in anything illegal, and I don't suspect him for the deaths of her parents or any of the mob bullshit that's headed this way," I said, "but Jasper is digging deeper, just in case."

The two nodded, and I turned for the kitchen, motioning for them to go ahead of me.

"Bella, these are our associates, James and Victoria." I introduced them, and she shook each of their hands in turn, giving them small smiles and polite "how-do-you-dos." "They were the pair assigned to Emmett and Rosalie, obviously."

"Well, help yourself to whatever; there's plenty for everyone, even with Emmett here." She smiled fondly at her brother as everyone chuckled.

The rest of brunch went off without a hitch, and Bella relaxed more as time passed. She made sure everyone was full and satisfied before cleaning up. Rosalie offered to help Bella with the dishes, and the girls shooed everyone else out so they could talk wedding details.

We settled in the living room, Emmett flipping on a football game on the TV. It figured. Of course he'd be a sports nut.

"So, Emmett," Jasper began. I recognized that voice. It was the voice he used to be all Southern gentlemen so he could get to know you without you realizing how much he got to know you. "What do you do for a living?"

"Paramedic, down in Olympia," he answered, his eyes stuck to the screen. "Rosie's a real estate agent and a damn good one. Handles million dollar properties and can make a deal better than anyone else I know."

"Yes, I suppose being a bitch helps with making deals," Victoria scoffed, and I tensed, waiting for Emmett to react furiously.

He surprised me by laughing. "Yeah, Rosie can be that way. She has no patience sometimes, and this situation with you guys doesn't help much." He peeled his eyes from the screen to look from Jasper to me. "So how's Bella doing? We email, but I'm pretty sure she edits stuff out, and I'm worried about her. Is she sleeping any better?"

I frowned. I wasn't aware she had trouble sleeping. She never mentioned it. "She seems alright. You can tell she's afraid but is trying to be a trooper about it all. I didn't know about the sleeping thing."

Emmett's blue eyes stayed on me, the look in them telling me that he wasn't some pumped up meathead. He cared deeply for his sister and worried about her. "Yeah, since… the accident, she's had trouble sleeping. She was there when it happened, and I guess the memories give her nightmares. The doctor prescribed something to help her sleep, but she refuses to be medicated, hates the way they make her feel."

She was _there_ when it happened? Holy fuck, she'd been through worse than I thought. To watch your parents die in such a horrific way, right in front of you…

_Sounds familiar, doesn't it?_ I frowned at the voice in my head. That was neither here nor there right now, and my fucking problems had no place at this time.

"Oh, that's awful," Jasper murmured. James and Victoria looked sympathetic as well, obviously hearing this for the first time themselves. "She's never let on that she's suffering. She looks a little tired, but I never thought it was sleeplessness. I've heard her up and about once in a while during my shift, but I assumed it was just her using the bathroom or something."

"Yeah. She stayed with Rosie and me for a few days after it happened, and she woke up screaming a couple of times. She refused help after the first doctor prescribed stuff, said she'd deal on her own." Emmett explained, looking sad. "She hates being taken care of if she can help it and insisted on coming home after the funeral. She says she's doing okay, but she can hide things from us pretty well. I bet she's suffering more than she's letting on."

I nodded, considering this. She didn't seem to give the impression that she was more upset than we'd thought, and except for the time she'd cried a few days ago, she'd been solid in her day to day.

"We're looking out for her, Emmett." Jasper assured him quietly. "We'll keep an eye on her and let you know if anything happens."

Emmett nodded, his eyes going between Jasper and me again. "Thanks."

We heard the girls suddenly laugh and their voices draw closer, ending our serious conversation. We had a nice visit together, Bella looking happier than I'd seen her since we'd arrived, obviously glad that Emmett and Rose had come. They discussed the couple's upcoming nuptials while Jasper and I discussed the assignment with James and Victoria, promising to keep in better contact with each other if anything happened.

Jasper ended up going to bed around noon, and the rest of us joined the family's conversation, getting to know each other a little better. Rosalie beamed with pride and love when Emmett told stories of saving people on the job, and everyone shared a good laugh at some of the funnier stories, such as the man who'd accidentally super glued his hand to his junk when he grabbed the wrong bottle from his nightstand. Emmett was a captivating storyteller, his face alight with expressions and his hands going everywhere when he described things.

Around four, Rosalie announced they had to get going, since it was a couple of hours back to Olympia. She had to prepare to show a couple of properties the next day and didn't want to be up all night doing it. Bella almost pouted but put up her brave face again instead. We'd have to talk about that at some point, despite the fact I knew I shouldn't get too close on the job. I couldn't help but want to protect her; I was hired to protect her body, but I couldn't help wanting to save her soul as well. Keeping it in all the time would _not_ fucking help. I should know, since I was in her position for years, only I didn't have any other family to help me.

After hugging her brother and future sister-in-law and wishing James and Victoria a pleasant goodbye, she watched them pile into Emmett's Jeep and head out. When they were out of sight, she shut the door and turned away. I could see tears in her eyes, and when she caught me looking at her, she hurried into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.

"I'm hungry. Do you want anything?" she asked, obviously trying to distract me from saying anything. "I think I'll have a sandwich." She pulled out the loaf of bread, as well as turkey, cheese, and condiments, setting them on the island counter.

"Bella, it's okay to be upset, you know." I watched her pull out a bread knife and start slicing the bread down. She was trying to stay brave, but I could see her hand trembling when she raised it to start another slice. Recalling all the times I'd seen her trip and run into things, I didn't think having a knife in her hands in this condition would be safe, so I placed a hand on top of hers to still it. I felt the same pulse of energy between us as I did every other time we'd touched.

She frowned, bowing her head, but thankfully didn't fight me back. A few tears escaped, trailing down her cheeks, and she wiped them away with her free hand. She tugged her other hand from mine and used them both to push her hair back, looking at the ceiling and blinking away the remaining tears. She was struggling to maintain control.

"I know it's okay to be upset," she said, still looking up. "I just can't though. I've grieved, I still am, but I don't need to be a wailing mess to prove it. I buried my parents, and that's the worst thing I've ever had to do. I'm so fucking angry that some mob _family_," she used air quotes there, "decided it would be alright to take away _my_ family for no good reason other than spite or something. I had to see it firsthand. I watched them die, watched the car turn into a giant fireball, and there was nothing I could to for them. Now _I'm_ being hunted down for the same unknown reason, and I'm sick and tired of not knowing anything!" She picked the knife back up and began mauling the bread. I let her, since it seemed to help, though the poor bread suffered. She didn't say any more though.

"Feel any better?" I chanced, once the bread had been successfully put out of its misery.

She sighed, picking at the mess on the counter. "Not much. I guess it helped some, but it didn't fix anything."

"It won't. But it doesn't help to hold it in all the time either."

She nodded absently. "I'm going to clean this up. Do you want anything?" I shook my head.

"I'll go find something on TV."

She nodded and began scraping the mess into a pile. I left her to clean up and wandered into the living room. I turned on the TV to some crime drama and let my mind wander.

We had more in common than I thought. We'd both seen our parents die in front of us. We both apparently had trouble sleeping. We were also very stubborn people, trying to prove to the world that we didn't need anyone else to help us.

A squealing noise came from the dining room, followed by a "Ah, sonofa_bitch_!" in the kitchen. I ran to the dining room just as I head the spare bedroom door open. Jasper joined me a second later, and we checked the monitors for signs of Prick and Asshole making their return.

"Ah, fuck. That is one giant deer," Jasper mumbled sleepily. He pointed to the screen, where a huge twenty point buck was wandering in the camera range, big enough to set off the alarm. After a complete scan of the system showed no real threat, Jasper shuffled back to bed for another couple hours of sleep. I went to see what Bella was yelling about.

She was hunched over the sink, holding her arm under the running water. I rushed to her and saw that she had cut herself; the bread knife lying in the sink with a slight streak of red on its edge. Bella herself looked very pale and was breathing through her mouth, eyes closed.

"Bella, what happened?" I asked, taking her arm from under the water to examine the damage. It wasn't a deep cut, nor very long, but it was bleeding fairly well. I grabbed a couple of paper towels and pressed them to the cut.

"The alarm… thing… went off, and it startled me. I was washing the knife, and I cut myself… oh, crap." Her knees buckled a little, and I gripped her around the waist, lifting her up and setting her on the island. "I can't handle the smell of blood," she explained weakly, looking at me with glazed eyes.

"Where are the Band-Aids and stuff?" I asked, gripping her shoulders.

"Medicine cabinet."

"Okay, stay here. I'll get them and take care of this. Just don't look, and keep breathing through your mouth." She nodded and turned her head away, closing her eyes and breathing through her mouth.

I hurried to the bathroom and rifled through the medicine cabinet, grabbing an alcohol swab and a box of large Band-Aids. I rushed back to the kitchen, glad she managed to stay upright and on the counter. I set the bandages and alcohol next to her and gingerly took her injured arm into my hand. The bleeding had slowed a little with the help of the paper towels, and I gently pulled them off and discarded them into the trash. Her eyes were still closed, and she still looked queasy.

"If it'll help, lean your head on my shoulder, and I'll take care of this for you." I told her, stepping close enough that I was barely between her legs but still at a distance that was comfortable. She bobbed her head in agreement and leaned her forehead against my shoulder, and I set to work on her arm.

It was hard to concentrate while her head was resting on my shoulder and the smell of her hair was all around me. I dabbed at the cut on her arm with the alcohol swab and cringed a little when she hissed. I blew on the cut to help with the pain before placing a large Band-Aid over it, pressing gently so it stuck.

"Better?" I asked quietly, turning my head slightly so I could immerse myself further in the scent of flowers. She smelled fucking heavenly, and my hands just wanted to skim along the skin of her thighs below the hem of her shorts.

"Yes," she whispered, head still on my shoulder. Her breathing was more even now that the scent of blood was no longer bothering her. She raised her head, breathing a little more deeply as her cheek brushed against mine. I froze, unsure of what to do next, when her nose skimmed my jaw before she pulled her head back slightly to look at me. Her eyes were dark and hooded, lips parted as she regarded me in the dim light of the kitchen. Her smell was so fucking intoxicating that I couldn't help but close the slim distance between us and press my lips to hers, needing to taste her before I went fucking crazy.

It was better than I could have imagined. She tasted warm and rich, reminding me of chocolate or peanut butter, or both. Fuck. One of my hands tangled into her hair to cup the back of her head while the other slipped around her back to pull her closer to me as I stepped completely between her legs. Her hands came up to weave into my hair, and her legs curled around my waist, holding me to her. We were fucking wrapped in each other, forgetting our stations, just enjoying the moment. The electricity was stronger now, flowing between us at every point our bodies touched, and it was the most amazing fucking feeling ever.

I parted my lips and gently traced her bottom lip with the tip of my tongue, eliciting a quiet moan from her that went straight to my groin. Her lips parted in response, inviting me in, and our tongues twisted gently together, giving me a more concentrated taste of _Bella_. It was amazing, but the voice of reason started screaming in my head.

_This isn't right! You shouldn't be doing this!_

Perhaps the voice was right, but Bella wasn't stopping either. In fact, she was pressing herself closer, her hands now stroking my hair and practically making my fucking eyes roll into the back of my head with the sensation. Her lips moved against mine almost perfectly, and I tilted my head a little for a better angle. I could feel her breasts against my chest, and her goddamn nipples were letting me know that she was as turned on as I was. Shit. This had to stop before we ended up doing something we regretted.

I slowed the kiss down before pulling away gently, breaking the weak grip of her legs around me and opening my eyes to see hers still closed and a small smile on those beautiful fucking lips. They were still swollen, and it wasn't helping the current situation in my pants. I had no idea what this would mean for us: was it a fluke, just something between two emotionally charged people, or was there something there that we couldn't recognize yet to name? I knew the former was better than the latter for us, but I couldn't help but hope it wasn't just a fluke. It was too incredible to be a fluke.

"I've been waiting for that since high school," she sighed almost dreamily.

I chuckled softly. "High school, huh?"

She nodded, eyes opening to look at me and a sheepish smile gracing those fucking perfect lips. "Yeah. I had the biggest crush on you then. I always wondered what it would be like to kiss you."

"Oh yeah? Hm." I pondered that for a moment. I felt bad that I couldn't remember her from high school now. She'd had a crush on me all those years ago. If I'd have been in a better place and noticed her, I bet life could have been way different for the both of us. "How was it then? Everything you ever hoped for?"

She laughed a little and slid off the counter to stand, her body rubbing against mine on the way. She blushed a little, realizing what she'd done, and I tried not to react, giving her a small smile.

"Oh, absolutely. And so much more. How was it for you?" She was trying to be flippant, I could tell, but she bit her bottom lip and looked like a hopeful teenage girl instead of the confident woman she was pretending to be.

Uh, un-fucking-believable? The best thing I'd ever experienced? I was pretty sure I wouldn't be able to eat a Reese's cup without getting a goddamn hard-on from now on because it would remind me of her taste and how I reacted to her. I couldn't tell her any of that or it could quite possibly freak her out, so I kept it simple. "It was amazing," I whispered before pressing my lips to hers again in a chaste kiss.

* * *

**So does over eight pages make up for the wait? I hope so. It was also my first kissing scene, so I hope it lived up to what you hoped for. :)**

**Now, here's why it took so long:**

**1. School is kicking my ass. It's my last semester of classes before student teaching in the fall, so it comes first. As much as I'd love to just read and write fanfic all day, score analysis and lesson plans come first.**

**2. My senior recital. I finally gave it on the 7****th**** and I rocked! There were a few bobbles here and there, but I didn't feel nervous, nor care. It was my moment. :P lol.**

**3. I LOST MY SPARK. Yes. My muse decided she didn't want to compete with school and she left me for a bit, so this chapter was particularly hard to write. I didn't feel inspired at all and with school and beta'ing duties, I was burned out. I'm on spring break this week, so maybe I'll get another chapter started. No guarantees though.**

**I'ma pimp some stuff now, cause you need to read these (plus I beta them and they deserve recognition):**

'**Observance'- by Jayne Rulis. Awesome sort of take on 'The Rear Window' with our fave characters. Pretty kick ass and full o' mystery.**

'**Wreckage'- by lambcullen. A car crash, some amnesia, and a whole lotta questions, with a little lemon zest for flavor.**

'**Work In Progress'- by araeo. EFFING HILARIOUS. Our dynamic duo meet in a Brazilian steakhouse and bumble their way into romantic shenanigans.**

**ALSO: Since I am on spring break, I will be out of town (i.e., without internet) from Friday through Sunday, so if you review or PM me, don't be upset if I don't respond. I'll get right on that once I'm back around wireless internet, I swear.**

**NOW REVIEW AND TELL ME HOW MUCH YOU LOVE ME FOR UPDATING! Please? I'd love to cross 100 reviews.**


	8. The Fear You Won

**Giant monster A/N and I'm sorry for it. It covers a fair bit, so at least skim it, okay? :D**

**I don't know what to say about how long it's been that you haven't heard before. School, moving home, depression, lack of motivation… there was a lot of stuff keeping me from writing, and at one point I thought this entire story was stupid and almost trashed it because I couldn't get anything out. I finally just said fuck it and started writing and aren't you glad for that? Lol. But hey, I get to student teach in the fall, which means I actually get to graduate this lifetime! Yay! All that hard work and ignoring my writing wasn't for nothing!**

**What colors come to mind when you think of this story? Do any in particular come to mind? I'll let you all know why later, if you guys come up with something. ;)**

**Hey, this story has its own thread on Twilighted! Link on my profile! Maybe if you come and play, I'll get more inspiration to write?**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed and for getting me to over one hundred reviews! I appreciate it, and feel really bad that it took me this long to post another chapter. Can we aim for at least fifty this time around? And for those of you who have alerted me/this story… drop a line in a review, just say hey, whatever! I love hearing from people who read this, lets me know how I'm doing!**

**And finally, many thanks to my beta, Feisty Y. Beden (find her on here and check her stuff out!) for her beta skills and cheerleading, the girls at UU, and Sarah/Becca Graymoor and Molly/Jayne Rulis (check her stuff out, too!) for their endless muse duties.**

(Chapter Song: 'Fear You Won't Fall'- Joshua Radin)

**BPOV**

Snickerdoodles. The man tasted like snickerdoodles.

As I showered Monday morning before school, I thought back on the past few days, particularly the day The Kiss happened.

I hadn't planned it. I blamed it on being dizzy because of the blood. When that alarm went off on Jasper's computers, I'd jerked, the knife I'd been washing slipped, and it all went downhill from there. I almost passed out from the smell of the blood, and Edward managed to get me onto the counter before I made a complete ass of myself. Though why he thought the counter instead of the floor was better, I'll never know. Passing out and falling on my head didn't seem much better, but I could manage to stay upright if I held my breath.

Edward was quite sweet, taking care of my wound and making sure I was alright. Leaning on his shoulder like that and inhaling his smell, pure Edward, brought about a new sort of dizziness, but not the sort that would cause me to end up unconscious. I blushed under the spray of the shower as I thought of my actions, how I'd sniffed up his neck and along that fucking edible jaw before looking at him like I was three sheets to the wind.

He was the one who initiated the kiss, which shocked the hell out of me, but I just chalked it up to being so close and swept up in the moment, maybe even a pity kiss to make me feel better. Never in a million years would Edward fucking Cullen kiss me of his own volition because he found me attractive. I was sure he'd been with much prettier, more interesting women and could find nothing special or extraordinary about me that would draw him in. I'd been told I was pretty in the past, but I'd also found out most guys thought I was boring. One guy had even told me on a date that he'd had more fun with his grandma, who had suffered a stroke and was practically a vegetable.

Yep. That had stung a bit.

I'd always been shy and awkward, finding more companionship in books than people, but I just could never get interested in the things other people did, and therefore never knew what to talk about in company. It was lonely most times, but I managed to get through life without any major trauma of being alone.

Now my biggest high school crush was _living_ with me and could see me in all of my boring glory. No way could he be interested enough in me to make the first move.

And yet, I'd caught him looking at me since with a look that suggested he wanted to kiss me again. A sort of hunger, maybe, and it certainly gave me tingles. I couldn't help them. He'd caught me looking at him, too, but no way would I act on that urge again until I knew for certain he was interested.

We should have talked about it; we were adults, after all. We also weren't in the ideal situation to have a relationship by normal terms, but that didn't mean it wasn't a possibility. I didn't see why he couldn't do his job and maybe pursue something with me, but I'm sure he had his principles or something.

I finished getting dressed and made my way to the kitchen for breakfast. I'd packed my bag last night so that I could take my time to make a decent breakfast for Edward and myself, so I went about making eggs and sausage with toast. While I cooked I tried to mentally prepare myself for my first day back and getting over my jitters of having to teach with Edward watching me. I could handle thirty students at a time, but one hot bodyguard in the room gave me first-year-teacher nerves.

My nerves got even worse when he sauntered in while I was plating breakfast, looking fuckhot in black dress pants and a white oxford with a simple red tie. His hair was still as unruly as always and damp from his shower, and his eyes still looked tired. I wondered if he ever got a good night's rest. He set his own messenger bag down next to mine in the office area and grabbed two mugs to pour us coffee before sitting at the counter.

I recovered and set a plate in front of him before sitting down to enjoy my own. I tried not to think about how gorgeous he looked while I ate, sipping on my coffee and trying to imagine him in a different profession.

I was sure he'd never claimed to have wanted to be a bodyguard when he was younger. In high school he'd never seemed to show a predilection for fighting or protecting people. He just seemed to…_exist_. I figured he'd go into business or music or something low-key, something that called for the clothes he was wearing now, but instead he was a bodyguard who wasn't afraid of anything.

I supposed the old adage about judging books by covers was still true.

Still, the dress clothes he was in now suited him much better than the black he tended to wear around the house. I'd also seen the weapons he brought with him—accidentally stumbling upon the bag while cleaning the guest room one day--and I shuddered at the thought of him using them to harm, or even kill, someone. It just didn't fit the quiet boy I used to admire from afar.

I didn't realize I was staring at him until he turned his face and raised an eyebrow at me, his mouth pulling up into a crooked grin. I blushed and faced my plate, pushing bits of food around. I was not prepared for him to tuck a lock of hair behind my ear, nor was the electricity from his touch lost on me. I had no idea why that happened when we touched, but I couldn't say it wasn't pleasant. I even sort of craved it, but not to the point I'd intentionally initiate contact to feel it.

I turned my head and looked at him, eyes wide and mouth hanging open a little. His smile was gone, and his eyes were intense on mine.

"Do you feel that, too?" he whispered, his hand still in my hair. I could only nod mutely, my heart racing in my chest, my breathing shallow. Oh, God, please do something before I die of hyperventilation or heart failure.

He leaned in slowly, his eyes still on mine, until his lips touched mine once, twice, before pulling back. His fingers trailed through my hair once before he broke all physical contact with me, his hands falling to his lap. My hands were clenched together in my own.

"I don't know if we should be doing this," he murmured, brows knitting together in thought. "We shouldn't, but I just can't help it with you."

I finally found my voice after a minute, my heart calming enough so that my breathing evened out. "Maybe we can just take things really slowly and let whatever happens… happen?" Oh my God, where did that come from? Did I just ask him to try, to make something of this? Was this the equivalent of asking him out without actually asking him out?

He frowned, looking at his plate without really seeing it as he thought. "Perhaps. There's no denying an attraction, but I don't know if it's wise to pursue anything. This isn't what I'm here for."

My own face relaxed into a frown of its own. "Well, maybe you are." He looked at me skeptically. "It's cheesy, but maybe it's like that fate crap people spout about all the time. Maybe something is supposed to happen between us. I mean, we can absolutely take things slow, and if it doesn't pan out, then… well… that's that, it was just your job." I didn't want it to not pan out. This electricity, this _attraction_, wasn't just curiosity or a distraction from the fact that he was here on a job.

He was still staring at his plate in thought, and I couldn't take the silence. I stood and gathered my plate and mug, heading to the sink to clean up the breakfast dishes. I was almost finished, lost in my thoughts of what he could possibly be thinking about mixed with what I expected the first day back at school to be like—and possible thoughts of "what ifs" with Edward in the janitor's closet –when his plate was thrust in my field of vision, surprising me out of my thoughts. I looked at him to see if his expression would give anything away. His eyes were still scrunched a little in thought or apprehension, both of which caused my heart to flutter again, this time in fear. I gingerly took the plate from him to wash and he hardly seemed to notice.

"Slow," he finally uttered. Not a question. "Glacial. The job always comes first."

My heart leapt in my chest, and I tried my hardest to keep my expression the same. I nodded mutely, and he gave me one nod in confirmation before turning to get our bags from the office. I turned back to the sink and let the exuberant smile spread on my face as I finished washing his dishes and set them in the drainer to dry. I managed to keep myself from doing a happy dance.

That would wait until I was completely alone in a private place.

He handed me my bag and the stupid bulletproof vest, which I put on like a sullen child, and we headed out for the school.

~*~

The first day was as uneventful as always. The students looked bored and pissed that their summer break was over and they were once again confined to the hellish halls of school. No one was up to giving me any guff about my syllabus for the semester, only looking even more bored because of the material. I suppose not everyone was meant to love the classics.

Edward was the dutiful "student," sitting in the back of the class taking "notes" on his laptop. I have no idea what he typed, but he managed to pull off a mildly interested look every time I chanced a look at him. I had a hard time concentrating when I would glance at him, as I learned when I had trailed off mid-sentence the first couple of times I'd done it, much to the chagrin of the students, so I trained myself to only peek when I wasn't speaking. He still looked fuckhot no matter how many times I peeked, and the faint tingling in my stomach never waned. I tried to keep my thoughts about sneaking to the janitor's closet during lunch tucked away so I wouldn't end up completely embarrassing myself in front of my classes.

_Slow, Bella, remember? Glacial. Meaning it might be the second Ice Age before it's time for "what ifs" in the closets at school._

Yeah, yeah. It was weird having him set the limits. He seemed to be the type that would ignore limits and do what he damned well pleased. I wondered if he somehow felt the depth that I did, and I let myself feel a little thrill at the possibility.

During our lunch period he made small talk with the other teachers in the lounge, weaving a completely believable story about college and grad school to Angela when she sat down to see what he had been up to since high school. She looked at me in complete disbelief when he'd gotten up to throw his trash away and mouthed, _holy fuck, I am so jealous_, before he returned. I hid my snicker behind my hand and continued nibbling on my crackers from the machine.

"So is every day going to be this boring?" he asked after the last bell had rung and the students had dashed to their freedom. I was in the back of the room counting copies of the books I'd listed on the syllabus for the year, making sure there was enough of each title for every student.

I chuckled and stood, marking my counts down on a Post-It and sticking it on the blotter on my desk. "Pretty much," I replied. "It is English class, after all. There's only so much I can do to make it exciting. There's usually a field trip, though, in the spring, to Seattle for _Romeo and Juliet_ performed by the Player's Guild. Not everyone is into it, but it gets them out of the classroom and in front of real actors, instead of listening to their classmates drone through it."

"Ah. Well that's something, I guess."

I shrugged and packed my bag. I pulled the bulletproof vest from the main pocket so that I could stuff my binder inside. I thought it would be tough to hide it, but as long as my binder wasn't in there, the vest fit fine. I just had to hide it while I walked down the hall and prayed the parking lot was empty of coworkers so I wouldn't get asked about it when I had it on. Thankfully it was, and I yanked the vest on quickly, Edward snickering at me as we headed to my decrepit truck.

We both knew people would gossip if they saw us together in one car since he was supposed to be a college student observing, so we'd come up with the explanation that he'd meet at my house, since it was on the way, and we'd just go in my vehicle from there to save him some gas for the drive to and from Seattle. The story had passed Principal Campbell's scrutiny when we'd told her before the start of the school year, so if we had her believing, we didn't have to worry about anyone else.

The drive home started out quiet, the roar of my truck the only sound. Edward finally spoke about halfway there.

"So what were you thinking about when you were talking this morning and just faded out those couple of times?"

Shit. He'd caught that. Of course he did. I blushed, keeping my eyes on the road.

"Oh, blushworthy thoughts." I could hear the smirk in his voice as he teased, "Were they about someone in particular?" I scowled, and he laughed quietly. "Were they… about me, Miss Swan?"

I sent him a glare which caused him to laugh, full and deep, head thrown back and eyes closed. I took the opportunity to ogle him for a second—still keeping my eye on the road, though –the line of his jaw and the length of his neck… oh, what I'd give to nibble it all right now…

"Ah, well you're just giving yourself away now, Bella."

Fuck! I scowled at the road again, causing him to go into another fit of laughter, and I refrained from looking at him again the rest of the ride home. My blush still hadn't died down when I parked the truck and slammed the door behind me. He was still chuckling when we went into the house. I continued to ignore him as I set my things down in the office and huffed off to change out of my professional clothes.

He must have done the same thing because he was coming out of the bathroom in his usual attire as I was walking back down the hall. I still tried to avoid my gaze as I passed him, but he caught my wrist to stop me. I didn't try to pull away, the electricity between us still surprising me into complacency.

"Don't be mad at me, Bella," he murmured close to my ear, and I barely repressed the shiver from his breath caressing my cheek. "I think it's cute. And if it helps any… I've had some pretty fucking unwholesome thoughts about you, too."

My eyes shot to his face, the crooked grin on his mouth, the mischief in his eyes that was mixed with… lust? Was he serious? He had thoughts like that about me, too? How the hell was someone supposed to be alright with taking it slow when you said shit like that to them?

This was going to be way harder than I thought. _Anything's better than nothing, though, right?_

He just smiled at my stunned expression, his fingers gliding up my arm lightly, and he leaned in to press a kiss to my temple. "And I'm not fucking ashamed of it," he whispered into my hair before releasing me.

We stared at each other for an immeasurable moment. The ringing of the doorbell broke our spell, and Edward followed me to the door. I checked the peephole and saw that it was Pete, an old friend and coworker of my father's. I looked to Edward, who was looking at me, waiting for an explanation.

"Pete. A friend of my dad's. They worked together at the station."

Edward nodded, and I opened the door, smiling at the man on the other side of my screen door. I unlocked it and opened it, gesturing for Pete to come in.

Pete was one of my favorites of Dad's friends. He was always nice to Emmett and me when we were kids, bringing us little toys or treats, and never talked down to us. He always asked how we were doing when he saw us and looked genuinely interested, keeping up with us through high school and college. He was happy for me when I'd gotten my job at the high school in Port Angeles last year.

"Hey, Bells," he greeted, giving me a quick hug and peck on the cheek. His gray eyes crinkled as he smiled at me. He removed his work hat and ran a hand through his thinning, sandy blond hair, catching sight of Edward and offering his hand. "Hey, Pete Evans."

"Edward." Edward took his hand and shook it, but he was all business now. Courteous but short.

I smiled at Pete. "Edward is down from UW observing me and my classes for grad school. Since it's the first day I've invited him over so we could go over a few things."

"Ah, well, you've been assigned to a fine teacher, Edward," Pete said, smiling proudly at me. "Bella here is smart as they come and quick as a whip. She'll teach you a thing or two."

Edward grinned wryly, and I knew his thoughts weren't of the English literature things he'd learn. Tool. "Yes, I hope so."

"So, Pete, what brings you here? Would you like to stay for dinner?"

He shook his head. "No thanks, Bells. It's a business call this time, I'm afraid. I've been through your dad's caseload at the station and through his office at his and your mom's home, and I can't find a particular file. It's a pretty important one, and I can't imagine where he'd have taken it to. Did he happen to leave anything here with you?"

I thought for a moment. "Not to my knowledge. I mean, there's a small box of stuff of theirs that has been here for a while, but I don't remember any work stuff being in it. Just trinkets or estate papers from after their deaths." My breath caught, and I tried not to let the grief come to the surface. Not yet, anyway. I'd been doing pretty well as of late dealing with their deaths; I didn't need a breakdown now.

Pete frowned, fingering his hat and shuffling his feet. "Hm. I'm sure it'll turn up somewhere. Let me know if you find any of his work files at all. Your dad had a weird system, so I'm not sure how he labeled it, but if I saw the information in it, I'd know it was the right one. So if you see any of his work stuff, call me, okay?"

I nodded. "Sure."

He smiled and placed his hat back on his head. "Thanks, Bells. I'll see you later."

I hugged him again and bid him farewell, locking the doors behind him. Edward was frowning, but when I asked him what his deal was, he shook his head and said he was just thinking about something. I was still a little upset Pete had interrupted our moment earlier and wondered if it had anything to do with his mood shift. I let my grief out a little as I cooked dinner, crying silently so Edward wouldn't worry as he checked his email and a few other things on his laptop. I felt marginally better afterwards.

Jasper woke up in time for dinner, and the mood was a little lighter with him at the island, talking about our day and reminiscing about high school days.

When I began to clear the counter of our plates, I noticed Edward lean over and murmur something to Jasper, whose expression grew serious, and he gave curt nod. The moment didn't last long, and I didn't want to make a big deal out of it, so I left it alone for now.

I spent the rest of the evening altering a few lesson plans for the week and beginning on the next week's set. When I finished two days' worth, I took my laptop into the living room and sat at the opposite end of the couch from Edward, who was watching some shoot-'em-up guy flick on the TV. I ignored it, using it as background noise, and opened the story I was working on, losing myself in my fantasy world for a while. I loved writing and used it as an escape after a stressful day. I hoped to be published someday, but the story was still in a more raw stage, so that time was a long way off.

When I'd had enough of that, I realized it was late, so I told Edward I needed to get to bed. He hadn't realized how late it had gotten, and we both bade Jasper a good night before heading to our separate rooms for bed.

As I got ready, I realized that we didn't consider Jasper in our "slow but sure" approach to whatever Edward and I had. I didn't know if he'd approve or just let Edward be, since we were both consenting adults and it wasn't really his business. I'm sure Edward would explain to him that the job would come first, and things might be alright. But what if Jasper didn't approve? What if he reported Edward to their bosses and they were pulled and I was stuck with another pair of complete strangers? I didn't think Jasper would be so low, but one never knew. It was always the ones you'd never consider who could dick you over.

I sighed and tried to push those thoughts away. I'd speak to Edward about it in the morning, and we'd figure it out. Working myself up over it wasn't wise, especially when I needed to sleep. That, coupled with the grief over my parents that had resurfaced earlier, made for a tough time going to sleep.

And the goddamn dreams came back that night.

**What's in your fantasy world?**


	9. Merman's Lullaby

**This wasn't supposed to take this long. I'm dealing with personal demons and a mother with a broken shoulder. Many apologies. But it's epic long at over 5k words, so that should buy me a little forgiveness, eh? This chapter is where the story earns the 'M' rating and THERE IS LIMEY GOODNESS AHEAD, so no one under 18, and it's prolly NSFW.**

**I loved hearing about your fantasy worlds. Most of them involved Rob/Edward and some form of romance. My fantasy world… is too complex to detail here. ;)**

**Thanks for the color suggestions. The reason I asked is because a good friend, maylin, dyes up yarn with colors that represent fanfics, and since I'm an avid knitter and she was kind enough, she dyed up two colorways from this story. Check out her Etsy, Tricoterie. There's a blue/orange called Stronger, and a purple/green I haven't named yet, but I think they're both listed under Someone To Watch Over Me. Pic links in my profile soon.**

**ALSO- I've been nominated for an Indie Award, for Best Original Character (which is Pete, I've been told)! Thanks, adoraklutz! Voting starts July 8****th****-12****th**** for the first round, if you'd like to vote for me or any of the awesome other stories out there. The site is www(dot)theindietwificawards(dot)com, so check it out!**

**Finally, thanks to Feisty Y. Beden for being my fuckawesome beta, Sarah and Beth for being muses and mommies when I was crying over being fail with this story. /end epic A/N.**

**Twilight isn't mine, and won't ever be. I own Twilight yarn, though.**

(Chapter songs: "Lullaby" – The Spill Canvas; "Merman" – Tori Amos)

**BPOV**

_Mom and Dad smiling and waving as they got into the car… I know something bad is going to happen, but they don't notice me yelling them to get away… My feet don't want to move… see them through the glass… fire… hot blast… glass… smoke…_

_ Do I hear screams? Nononono…_

"No!" I sat up with a gasp. I was not at my parents' house watching them die again. I was in my bedroom, in the dark, alone. I tried to even out my breathing, but it was coming out in sobs, and my cheeks were wet. The dreams weren't as frequent as before and I attributed that to being distracted by school. I'd had a pretty bad one the night Pete visited before school started, but weeks had passed and they weren't as awful.

I closed my eyes, trying to think of anything but the explosion, the fire, the _death_. I worked on evening out my breathing, concentrating on the blackness behind my eyelids, willing any horrifying images away. It worked for the most part, but I couldn't get back to sleep right now, and I refused to take any of the sleeping pills the doctor had prescribed. They made me feel like I was moving in a fog the entire next day, and I didn't want to live like that. I could deal with this on my own. I was thankful it was the weekend and I could sleep in or catch a nap sometime. It was a few weeks into the school year, and I had managed to keep the dreams at bay. I think the distraction of Edward and Jasper—mainly Edward—had helped with that.

I made my way to the master bathroom and flipped the switch. After my eyes adjusted to the bright light, I splashed some cold water on my face. After drying off, I looked at myself in the mirror. My normally pale complexion looked even more pallid, and the shadows under my eyes were darker, almost bruise-like. This nightmare stuff had to stop, but I just wasn't ready to deal with the underlying problem just yet. I had too much to worry about without trying to get help for nightmares right now. Once life settled down, I'd look into it more.

I pulled on my bathrobe and headed down the hall. The dining room lights were on, indicating Jasper was probably tooling around on his equipment or something. I could hear him murmuring as I approached, and I peeked around the corner to see what he was up to. Just as I'd thought, he was in front of the computers with a headset on with a microphone arm extending to his mouth. He was smiling, and I wondered what could make him happy this late at night. Maybe he was talking to a friend, a coworker? I didn't think so, the way he was smiling, but I didn't know for sure.

He stretched and glanced up, noticing me in my hiding place. He glanced down at the screens. "Just a sec, Ali." He pushed the mic arm up, away from his mouth. "Hey, Bella," he greeted quietly. "Can't sleep?"

I shook my head, stepping into the doorway. "No, bad dream." His face softened, and he gave me a small smile. I didn't like that Emmett had spilled the beans about the dreams, but I appreciated his sympathy and smiled back. "Are you chatting online or something?"

His face lit up, and he looked back at the screen. "Yeah, talking to my Alice." The way he said her name reminded me of the warm fuzzy feelings I felt when I thought of Edward. Well, Edward when he wasn't being an overprotective dick. I liked thinking about the Edward that sat with me and watched the news, or sat at the counter while I made dinner and made jokes about the school day.

"Oh, that's nice. She doesn't mind being up this late?" I had no idea what time it was, but it seemed a little late for normal people to be up.

"Oh, no. She's usually up late because of work," he explained. "She does marketing for the U.S. branch of a European ad agency and often has to be up late hours to be available for conference calls. She doesn't mind much, since I get time like this to chat with her while I'm on the job. I get to sit and keep an eye on things, but I'm not bored out of my skull watching Billy Mays scream at me at three in the morning about how I need the next innovation in cleaning supplies."

I giggled. Billy did tend to scream in those commercials. "Well it's good that it works out for the both of you." A thought struck me. "Don't you worry that this might get traced back to her? Like, bad guys might find her through these conversations?"

"Oh, no. I have it set up that her computer and phone lines bounce around so that it can't be traced to her or me if someone wanted to try it. Without getting too technical, it bounces to different towers and networks to keep 'em confused. We've also set your cell phone up to do the same. I can pinpoint your real location, since the program is mine and I can get around it, but no one else can."

"Oh. Well that's handy."

Jasper nodded and then focused on the screen again, his brows furrowing. I heard a voice buzzing through his headset, and he moved the mic arm back down so he could talk into it. "What? Ali, I dunno if she'd want to, darlin'." He glanced up at me before looking at the monitor again. "She's in her PJs, and I don't think she feels much up to talking right now."

"What's going on?"

"Uh, well, she wants to 'meet' you."

"Over the computer?" I asked, incredulous.

He nodded. "She doesn't get out much because she sleeps during the day most times, so she doesn't meet many people. You don't have to if you don't want to."

I looked down at myself. I was covered in a blue bathrobe, not that my PJs were risqué by any means anyway, but I liked the extra layer. And I could use the distraction. "Sure, Jasper, I'll meet her. I could always use a friend or something." I ran my fingers through my hair, worried for some reason about how I appeared to a strange woman over a webcam. I moved over next to Jasper as he unplugged the headphones so we could both hear Alice. I looked at the screen and saw a petite, pale face surrounded by short, messy black hair. She was smiling brightly, and her gray eyes crinkled in the corners.

"Hi! You must be Bella. I'm Alice!" Her voice came through the computer clear and excited. She was too damn chipper for this time of night, but she was used to being up at these hours. I wasn't. Jasper stood, offering me his chair and murmuring something about making a sandwich before disappearing in the kitchen.

I sat down and managed a smile. "Hi, Alice. It's nice to meet you. Jasper's told me a little about you. You work for an ad agency in Europe?"

She nodded. "Yeah, in one of their U.S. branches in Seattle. I deal a lot with main offices overseas, mainly in London, Paris, places like that. I like it a lot, and I get to travel, which is nice."

"Oh, that does sound nice," I replied. I longed to travel but never had the time or money. I also hadn't known if my parents would have been able to function without me around for a few weeks. Emmett loved them just as much as I did, but I understood their quirks better. I pushed the pang of pain away at the memories struggling to get through and focused back on Alice.

"So how do you handle a bunch of high school kids all day?" she asked. She seemed fascinated and appalled at the same time.

"Well, it can be daunting, but you learn. You've just got to keep things moving, keep things interesting, which can get challenging with classical literature. You also have to keep the kids in mind and not just do what pleases you. You find a balance eventually." I smiled fondly, thinking of the students who seemed to genuinely like my class because I made it interesting.

I chatted with Alice for a few minutes more until my eyelids started to droop and I couldn't stifle my yawns any longer. I bid her and Jasper a good night, promising Alice that I'd chat to her again if the circumstances allowed. I felt a little better talking to someone about nothing in particular for a bit. I didn't have many friends aside from Angela, but since she'd gotten married a couple of years ago, I didn't get to see her as much. Edward and Jasper were all right, but things were awkward enough already, not to mention all of the testosterone, to feel completely comfortable at times.

I wandered back down the hall and stopped when I heard a noise. I stopped near the spare bedroom where Edward was asleep, listening for the noise.

There it was again. Murmuring and groaning, and he sounded… agitated? Upset? Edward must be having a nightmare too. I carefully opened the door, the ambient light from the bathroom night light casting enough brightness to see Edward curled up in bed, shifting uncomfortably under the covers.

"Mmph. No," he whimpered, tossing his head to one side. He shifted again and made an unintelligible noise. I slipped inside and knelt by the bed on the side closest to him.

"Edward," I whispered, touching his arm gently. He moaned again, and I said his name a little louder, moving my hand to shake him gently. He whimpered, but his eyes opened, and in the dark I could see they were wide and frightened. I wondered what tragedy had happened to cause him nightmares.

He relaxed infinitesimally, sitting up a little and looking around before he noticed me next to him. "Bella?"

"Yeah, it's me. I heard you making noise, and I came to see if you were all right."

He rubbed a hand over his face and reached over to click on the little bedside lamp. We both squinted in the dim light, and he sat up the rest of the way, the covers slipping down to reveal he was shirtless.

_Jesus, could the man be any more beautiful?_ I thought to myself, trying not to stare. He must have worked hard for a body like that, and I saw a couple of scars, one that looked like a long cut on his shoulder and another that might have been a gunshot on his right pec. I never thought about how dangerous his job could be. I hoped that his time with me would not add another scar.

"Like what you see?"

I felt the heat of my blush burn from my hairline to my chin, and I looked at the floor. "Sorry. Just looking at your scars."

"Ah. Sometimes things get… exciting. The shoulder wasn't really all that awesome, though. One of my clients had a jealous boyfriend with a hot head." He rubbed the scar absently, eyes focused on the memory. "She'd apparently cheated before, and he wasn't gonna put up with another. People are just stupid."

I laughed quietly. "Yeah, some people are."

He looked at me, his gaze scrutinizing. "Did you have a bad dream?"

I bit my lip and nodded. I thought I saw his eyes flicker to my mouth and flare briefly, but I could have been imagining it in my sleep-deprived state. "Yeah. Went and talked to Jasper for a few. Met Alice over his webcam."

He chuckled. "Ah, Alice."

"Yeah. She's nice, but too chipper for my taste this late." I felt a little wistful thinking about how I'd felt a little freer talking to Alice and how it was back to real life when I stepped away from the computers.

"My sister usually is. But she's there when I've needed to call her after… when I have a bad night."

"I didn't know she was your sister." Oh, shit. I insulted his sister and didn't know it. He didn't seem upset by it and even agreed, so maybe what I said wasn't so bad.

"Yeah. That's how she and Jasper ended up together. He came over for Christmas one year, and it was almost instantaneous between them." He furrowed his brow like he was thinking about something and then patted the bed next to him. "Come sit up here."

I stood, frowning in confusion. He was being a little more comforting than I thought he'd be with his "less is more" philosophy. He must have realized what I was thinking, because he patted the bed again and gently said, "We've both had a bad night and need some comfort. We're not going to do anything sexual. I know I said slow, but sometimes we can be… more."

I hesitated a moment more before walking around the bed and climbing under the covers next to him. We were both sitting with our backs against the headboard. As I leaned into him, wrapping my arms around him, he slipped an arm around my shoulders. We were both quiet for a while until I started to doze and Edward decided to speak.

"Tell me about your parents."

"What?" My voice was slightly thick with sleep.

"What were your parents like? You speak of them fondly, and you and Emmett seem like you grew up in a good home."

"We did." I smiled sadly. "Mom and Dad were complete opposites, personality-wise. Dad was the homebody, liked to watch sports on TV with a beer in his hand or go fishing with Pete and Billy, Jacob's dad. Oh, the stories they'd come home with. Pete was always insisting that his catch was the best he'd ever caught, even though he claimed that every time they went, and Billy would laugh at him and call him a liar. Dad would just shake his head and smile at them. He didn't say a whole lot if he could help it, but what he did say was usually worth listening to, unless it was about girl stuff. He'd send me to Mom for that stuff, and she was the outgoing, fun half of the pair. She couldn't focus long enough on learning a hobby to actually call it her hobby. She tried all kinds of things, from Spanish to knitting to yoga. When I got older, I'd always comment about how she never stuck to anything, and she'd always reply, 'Bella, I'm just not cut out for those things like I thought. I tried, and I learned.' I sort of took that as a motto, 'try and learn.'" I sighed. "She brought my dad out of his shell sometimes, trying a couple new things with him, like ballroom dancing. That ended after lesson one when Dad's poor feet were assaulted the entire class. Dad calmed Mom down when she was extra flighty or started in on another thing she'd like to try. He'd talk to her about it, make her think it through, and managed to save her the trouble on some of the more… risky ones, like skydiving."

Edward laughed. "Skydiving?"

"Yeah. She mentioned how she'd like to try it, and how she'd looked up possible places to go learn. Dad turned deathly pale as she went on about it. I remember what he said: 'Renee, I didn't realize you got over your fear of heights.' When she mentioned she hadn't, he said, 'You do realize they'll take you up in a plane, very high, and then make you jump out of it with nothing more to save you than a tablecloth attached with clothesline?' She shut up about skydiving after that discussion. Dad and I both knew that if she attempted it, she'd be hundreds of feet up in the sky, realize just exactly was going on, and then scream and scream until the plane landed and she kissed the good earth in appreciation."

Edward laughed harder at that. "Man, just picturing that, even though I have no idea what your mom looks like, is just… fucking hilarious."

I was laughing too, so hard that I had tears coming from my eyes, or maybe they were more from missing my parents than the laughter. I swiped my fingers below my eyes and chuckled to cover it up. I didn't want to be sad right now while I was remembering good times about Mom and Dad. "Mom looked a lot like me, but Emmett has her pretty blue eyes. I got stuck with Dad's boring brown ones."

"I don't find them boring," Edward assured me, tipping my chin up to look at my eyes. "They're brown, sure, but not just brown. They get a little more golden when you're pissed at me, or emotional, like now. Sometimes when you're daydreaming while you're cooking or writing, I notice they're a little green towards the middle. I think they're beautiful, not boring."

I smiled through the heat of the blush on my face. "Thank you, Edward. You have beautiful eyes, too. Like… spring leaves. I can't say I've noticed them change a whole lot, but I know they get darker after you kiss me and a little lighter when you laugh."

"Yeah?" he whispered, his face closer to mine. My breath hitched, and I felt a warm feeling in my belly when I realized he was going to kiss me.

When his lips touched mine, the electricity that had been flowing through us grew stronger, warmer, until I thought we'd catch fire and burn from the sensation. There still wasn't any explanation for why we had this feeling between us, but we didn't complain about it either. His thumb stroked my cheekbone, and his arm tightened around me, holding me closer to him. I dragged my tongue over his lips and was pleased to hear him groan before his lips parted for me. Our tongues danced together languidly, neither fighting for dominance over the other. My hands clutched at his hair, and I shifted so I was straddling him, too aroused to be self-conscious about my behavior.

I could feel the effects of his arousal through my shorts, and I couldn't help but buck my hips against him, causing him to elicit another groan. His hands skimmed down my neck, over my shoulders, and down my sides, his thumbs brushing over the curves of my breasts. I arched into him with a whimper and broke the kiss to lick his jawline up to his ear. As I nibbled on it, I felt him fumbling with the belt of my robe before he pushed it from my shoulders. I let go of him long enough to slip the robe off, watching as he tossed it to the floor, before my hands wandered over his chest and arms and his hands slid under the hem of my shirt.

_This could go further than we're ready_, the voice of reason whispered through the lusty fog in my brain. My mouth decided to follow suit. "Edward, isn't this too fast?" I breathed in his ear, my hands still roaming, this time lower until I slipped a finger beneath the waistband of his sleep pants. I didn't feel a waistband for underwear underneath, and I felt a new rush of wetness between my legs at the thought of Edward being commando.

"Not really," he murmured back, licking under my ear as his hands slid up my sides, bringing my shirt with them until his thumbs grazed the underside of my breasts. Oh, they were so close to where I needed him to touch, oh _Christ_. "We don't have to go all the way. Not tonight. Not for a while. I think we need this, though. Just a little something." His thumbs finally reached my peaks, already hard with arousal, and I moaned a little louder when his thumbs ran over them and he sank his teeth lightly into the place where my neck and shoulder met.

"Fuck, Edward!" I almost lost my mind with just that touch. It had been a few years since I'd had any kind of sexual encounter, and my body was almost embarrassingly willing to do anything for release. If he was fine with this, I would be too.

My hand slipped lower, molding to his erection through his pants, and I was pleased to hear him hiss with the contact. I rubbed it a little more and felt his hips buck gently in rhythm, trying to increase the friction. "God, Bella," he breathed, lowering his head to capture my left nipple in his mouth, "so good, so fucking good. Beautiful."

Emboldened by his words and the way his hands and mouth played me, I slid my hand up his member one more time before I tugged the waist of his pants down a little and slipped my hand beneath. He was most definitely commando, and the sight of him was just… beautiful. Fucking-A beautiful. I wrapped my fingers around him and stroked, the skin like silk against my hand. It was throbbing, and he gave a guttural groan against my chest.

"Oh, shit. Oh fuck, Bella." He raised his head and devoured my mouth, his tongue wrapping around mine. He groaned when I ran my thumb over the head, spreading the fluid around. I lost myself in the sensation of the kiss and the feel of him in my hand, my other hand tangling back into his hair.

I gave a quiet squeal when I felt his fingers, those beautiful fingers I thought about more than I should, slip beneath my shorts and panties, continuing until they met my heat, wet and slick and begging for attention. He stroked over the sensitive area, and I nearly jumped at the contact before he continued on and slipped two fingers inside. My squeal cut off into a low moan, and I dropped my head to his shoulder, panting while I continued touching him.

We were both breathing heavily, punctuated by a moan or a "fuck," and I felt that wonderful tightening sensation deep in my belly. I wanted to finish so badly, but I wanted him to finish with me. I sped up my hand just as he began curling his fingers inside me.

"Bella," he whispered in my ear, his free hand running through my hair. "Bella, look at me. I want to watch." He gave my hair a gentle tug, and I forced my head back. His eyes were the darkest I'd ever seen them, almost black in their arousal, but they were focused on me, on my face and my reactions. I almost felt silly panting in his face but realized that he was doing the same, and we really weren't in the place for modesty at the moment.

"I'm almost there, sweetheart, so close," he breathed. This encouraged me further, and I continued to stroke, rubbing my thumb over all the sensitive places he reacted to, tightening my grip. "Oh, shit. Almost. With me, Bella, together. Together." I gasped when he began using his thumb to tease while his fingers kept curling inside of me. The coil in my belly was ready to spring.

"Edward!" I cried out. "Oh, God, I'm there, oh, _God_!" The coil snapped, and I died a little from the feelings coursing through me, and I heard Edward cry my name and felt him throbbing in my hand until he was empty and I was limp. Tremors wracked through each of us when we gently removed our hands from each other and just held on until we were steady in breathing and in mind.

After straightening my clothes, I went to the bathroom to get a towel for Edward and noticed that I looked a little better when I glanced in the mirror. My cheeks were a little rosy, and my lips were swollen and red. The shadows under my eyes were there, but I felt that I could sleep well after this little development between Edward and me.

I returned to the bedroom and tried not to watch Edward clean himself up. I picked up my bathrobe and went to put it on, but Edward stopped me.

"Don't go," he said softly. He was clean now, and his pants were back in place. "Is this too awkward for you now?"

I shook my head. "I thought it might be for you."

He smiled at me and shook his head in return. "Bella, I wouldn't do something like this with you and then kick you out of bed." He patted the empty space next to him like he had earlier, and I dropped my robe to the floor before scrambling in beside him. He lay beside me and pulled me to him, kissing my forehead, eyes, cheeks, and finally lips before smiling at me again. "Fucking fantastic," he murmured, his eyes looking sleepy and content.

"Yes, it was," I replied quietly, unable to keep the sleepy grin from my face. He reached behind him and snapped the lamp off, pulling me closer to him. I heard him murmur something, but I couldn't make it out as I was well on my way to a dreamless sleep.

~*%*~

Saturday dawned with sunshine instead of rain, a rarity in this bit of Washington. I opened my bleary eyes and closed them immediately. I did not have to be up for _anything_ and therefore refused to get up just yet. I snuggled under the covers more, realizing arms were around my waist. They tightened around me, and I felt Edward exhale above my head. I felt warm all over when the memory of what happened last night surfaced in my mind. It had been fantastic and wonderful, and I felt no awkwardness about it. We were both consenting adults in a relationship—sort of—and there was nothing wrong with it. I had a feeling that last night wasn't supposed to happen, at least not so soon, but I could hope I wouldn't have to wait too long for a repeat performance.

My stomach growled, derailing my plan to lie in bed and enjoy being close to Edward a bit longer. No way could I stay in bed with an empty and protesting stomach and enjoy it. I frowned at my burst bubble and gently unwound Edward's arms from my waist, slipping from the bed. He groaned in protest, not as asleep as I'd thought, and cracked one eye open at me.

"Too early. Come back." Oh, that morning voice was sexy. And not helping. I felt warm in my stomach all over again.

"I'm hungry, and I can't stay in bed while I'm hungry," I whispered to him, sitting on the edge of the bed and leaning over to run my hand through his hair. "You can sleep in. I need coffee."

"Too cold now to sleep in. You need to come back to bed." He pouted at me, and I almost gave in, but my stomach fought back, gurgling in protest at being denied food that much longer. He glared at my midriff, and I laughed. "I'll shower, since I can't sleep in."

"Alright. I'll make omelets."

"Yum."

I left Edward to drag his ass out of bed and wandered out to the kitchen. Coffee was already brewing, and I silently blessed Jasper, who was still clacking away at the keyboard in the dining room. I didn't hear him talking, so I didn't know if he was working now. I pulled out the frying pan and set it on the stove to heat before going to the fridge and pulling out omelet ingredients.

"Jasper, do you want breakfast?" I called out, setting things on the counter. I heard the chair move, and a minute later Jasper came into the kitchen.

"Sure, thanks," he answered. He leaned on the counter and watched as I cracked open a couple of eggs and beat them in a bowl before adding mushrooms and onions. "Someone looks extremely… energized today." He had a shit-eating grin on his face.

I looked at him, my mouth hanging open. "Excuse me?"

"I kinda overheard you two last night. I turned some music on after I realized what was going on."

Oh my God. My face burned six shades of red, and I stared at the bowl of eggs and vegetables. "It wasn't quite what you think." I mumbled, turning away with the bowl and dumping its contents into the pan.

"It's none of my business, Bella. Don't worry about it. You're adults, and who am I to judge? I'm not going to tattle or anything. I'm just glad you two… relaxed. I could feel the tension between you guys."

"Sorry," I said, still not looking at him. I finished his omelet with cheese and plated it, handing it off to him. _I will not be ashamed. There's no reason to be_. I looked up at Jasper, and he was smiling kindly, even if his blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "Well, we enjoyed it."

He laughed heartily and thanked me for breakfast before sitting back at his post in the dining room. Edward came out a few minutes later, freshly showered and absolutely edible in jeans and a black t-shirt. We shared a look that spoke a thousand words, slight, unavoidable awkwardness, happiness, contentment, and something else that couldn't be put into words. Not yet. I looked significantly at the dining room before looking back at him, and he looked puzzled for a minute before realizing what I was trying to convey. He had the decency to blush and look embarrassed when he thought about it and mouthed "sorry" and brushed the back of his hand over my cheek. I couldn't help the smile from spreading across my face.

Breakfast continued without any more embarrassment, just a few sweet looks and innocent touches between Edward and me. After the dishes were cleaned up and Jasper bid us good day to go to bed, Edward decided to relax on the couch with a movie, and I went to my room to look for that box that held trinkets and things from my parents.

Pete had been calling me at least twice a week about that file we'd talked about when he'd visited a few weeks ago. I understood that his work, and my father's work, was important, but my patience was running thin with his persistence. I hadn't found the file anywhere else in my house, or at my parents' house. The police had finally cleared their house when they found no helpful evidence in my parents' deaths, so Emmett and I could clean it up and figure out what we wanted to do with it now.

I opened my closet, dragged out the box that held my parents' stuff, and set it on the bed. I pulled out the items and tried not to reminisce too long on each of them. A little porcelain jewelry box of my mom's, which was empty. I knew she liked it a lot; I think it had been a gift from Dad. I'd keep my own trinkets in it now. There were a couple of books on fishing and gear, which Dad had left in my living room after a visit one time. Mom's book on pottery, her last failed hobby. I couldn't resist a chuckle at that memory. She'd come home with a misshapen clay thing and insisted it was a vase. She'd tried to put flowers in it, but since the one side drooped a lot, she couldn't keep much water in it and the flowers ended up sagging out that side, looking so sad.

After a couple more books and other odds and ends, I came to the bottom of the box. Aha! There was a red folder lying on the bottom. I picked it up, hoping it was what Pete had bothered me about. I flipped through it, seeing words like "drugs" and "money" in my father's scrawl among the papers inside. There were a couple pictures of a house that looked to be surrounded by many, many trees. It was white, two stories, and had lots of windows. _That must be some hidey-hole for the bad guys_, I speculated. But this is what Pete was harassing me about, so I could finally find some peace there.

"Hey, Edward!"

"Yeah?" His voice traveled down the hall from the living room.

"I found that file Pete's been bugging me about."

I heard footsteps padding down the hall towards my room. "What?"

"That file Pete's been looking for. I've found it." I held it up for him to see when he was in my doorway.

"Do you know what's in it?" he asked.

"Not much, just a couple of blurbs about drugs and money." I handed the file over when he held his hand out, and he flipped through it. His jaw dropped, and his face paled a little. "What? What is it? What's it say?"

"Bella, don't call Pete about this, not yet, okay? If he calls in the next couple of days, tell him you haven't found it yet."

"But why?"

"I'm not sure yet, but I'm going to have Jasper look some stuff up tonight, and I'll let you know if Pete should get this file," he replied absently, wandering back down the hall with the file.

Well, hell. I was getting a bit tired of this secrecy bullshit, bodyguard or not. I felt a new flare of annoyance and anger at Jacob for hiring this entire operation to begin with.

_But it brought you Edward, silly girl. Have you forgotten last night already?_ the voice in my head whispered.

"Oh, shut the fuck up, you," I muttered to it. Awesome. I was going completely crazy.

**What's your favorite memory with your parents or family?**


	10. Pale Horses Believe

**Apologies for the massive delay. I expected that I'd be able to update more since I had more free time in the evenings with my student teaching and all, but I didn't realize I'd be so exhausted and want nothing more to sit on the couch and not move until bedtime. Plus this just doesn't feel the same, so I'm having a hard time finding the words to give you all a worthy update.**

**I'm touched by the memories you've shared with me about your families. It's nice to read the great times you remember and I'm honored you shared them with me.**

**As always, mucho gracias to Feisty for betaing, and to Sarah and Beth for being my muses and encouragement when I'm ready to delete this story for being utter crap, and to the UU bitches that make me giggle. You know who you are. **

_**Twilight**_** and everything related isn't mine, but you already knew that.

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('Believe'- The Bravery; 'Pale Horses'- Moby)

**EPOV**

Sometimes life throws you curveballs. Things start to go nicely, and then things turn into one big fuck my life.

I don't like even thinking ill of the dead, but right now, as I was sitting at kitchen counter, I was about ready to curse Charlie Swan for making my life more difficult.

I'd been riding on the high from last night, feeling more relaxed than I have in ages from a fan-fucking-tastic _handjob_ of all things, and pretty goddamn happy that I'd worked my magic on Bella and given her a good time, too. The way her hand had felt around me… fuck, I had to stop thinking about it or I'd sport wood all day, and that was just too uncomfortable for me, and more than likely too awkward for Bella. We'd helped erase the dark residue of the nightmares that plagued us, if only for a little while.

Waking up next to her didn't bother me as much as it should have, since I was on the job here and this was not standard protocol in any sense. We both knew that this wasn't supposed to happen, but my words about taking it slow had completely gone out the window at this point. I knew I was a whiny child in trying to convince her to stay in bed, but it felt so fucking nice to have her curled against me. I wasn't ready to lose that moment or feeling, and if I were a wishing man, I could have forgotten the real reason I was in her house to begin with and imagined waking up next to her was only a small piece of a happy life together.

Damn, I was a fucking pansy around this woman.

No specific words were said about the night before, but the implication of what we'd done was considered in every action. Breakfast was sweet, with a few chaste touches and glances filled with unspoken words. I was warring with feelings I haven't had in… probably ever, and I wasn't ready to sit down and dissect them yet. I didn't think I was ready to face whatever was going on inside.

When Bella called for me and showed me the file she'd found, the one Pete whatever-the-fuck kept calling and asking about, I welcomed the distraction. This could be a crucial piece of the mystery of why I was hired to protect Bella in the first place, and the sooner I could erase the threat from her life, the easier she could breathe and—what? The easier it would be for us to be together without the guilt? Was that what I was hoping for when this was over? I was not a "forever" kind of guy, but fuck if I didn't at least consider something more… lasting with Bella. Goddamn. If Esme could hear my thoughts, she'd probably choke with joy over me finding a relationship that has lasted more than a couple of weeks. Of course, Bella and I couldn't be considered a relationship, and I was technically working, but Esme would consider those mere technicalities.

Never in a million years would I have thought about anything remotely permanent with a woman, especially one I was hired to protect. Bella was beautiful and smart, and she could give me shit back as good as I gave it to her. She was shy and quiet, but there was a fire inside her that would burn hot with temper, or, like last night, simmer with sexual heat that she didn't flaunt but subconsciously wielded like a fucking vixen of the highest order.

_The file, Cullen. Focus_. I'd seen photos and notes when I'd taken the file from Bella but hadn't taken a good look at anything. I'd felt a little lightheaded when I realized that this could be the thing, the big thing that could just maybe help fuck over the Francis organization and erase the worry from Bella's eyes.

I opened the manila folder and looked at the first page. It had a couple of scribblings on it, what Bella had read when she'd opened the folder herself. There were a couple little things about drugs and money, questions that looked like Charlie had written down to ponder before he forgot:

_What are they producing in the house? Meth, weed, cocaine?_

_Why Forks? Seclusion, availability?_

_Money. Mom's birthday._

Mom's birthday? Why in the world was that in there? I didn't think the Chief would be unprofessional in the least, but why in the world would he write a reminder about his mother's birthday in a case file he was putting together? The picture painted of him by Bella and Emmett was that he was a straight-laced, by-the-book type of guy, and writing something like that didn't follow the pattern. Definitely something to ponder. Maybe Bella would understand, and I made a mental note to ask her later.

Next were the photos. I shuffled through them, examining the images: a house that was surrounded by trees, a few guys outside with shady looks and loaded guns, more than likely on patrol. A nondescript black sedan with men getting out of it, the next shot a close-up of the same car and men, and I recognized Leonard Francis getting out of the back passenger seat. We had a file of him back at the main office, many shots from other failed stings to catch him at whatever he was currently doing in those woods in Forks.

"Well, I'll be damned, Chief," I murmured to myself. "How'd you manage to get these photos? Is that how they found out it was you looking at them? Did they look back?" I shuffled through three more pictures, Francis walking into the house, our good buddies Prick and Asshole from before walking behind him, and one more of the house after they'd gone in. I felt a little excitement at knowing we'd found something, that maybe Chief Swan's notes would bring us closer to finding and busting these fuckers.

Of course, the fuck-my-life moment came just then. Chief Swan had notes. He had pages of notes behind the photos. But since Chief Swan clearly didn't want anyone knowing anything about what was in the file besides that he couldn't remember his mother's birthday, he'd written them in code. Yes, fucking code, and not one I was familiar with. Some letters looked like actual letters, only pointy, and some were just symbols. I stared at it, hoping it would somehow rearrange itself into something I could actually read, but I nearly went cross-eyed trying, to no avail.

"Well color me surprised. Fuck. You're killing me, Chief, you're fucking killing me," I muttered, shuffling through the papers in hopes there was something in plain English, some little clue to make my life easier. Nada. Everything was in this pointy script. I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair, clenching the strands and trying not to yank them out in frustration. I stood and headed back to the Bella's bedroom, where she'd remained after handing the file over to me. She'd seemed curious enough about what was inside, but the memories of the other things in the box the file had been in had a stronger pull on her. She was still grieving, so I let her have her time while I studied the contents of the manila folder. I hoped she was okay with the interruption, and I prayed she knew something about the code her father used.

She was sitting on her bed surrounded by books and trinkets. She looked lost in memory but wasn't crying, thank goodness. I knew it was normal to cry when grieving, but I didn't know if I could have maintained my patience over Charlie's coded notes and a weepy woman at the same time. She looked up when I stopped in the doorway and gave me a sad smile.

"It's only a few things," she said quietly, touching the cover of one of the books, which looked like it had something to do with fishing. Must have been her dad's. "But it's still pieces of Mom and Dad that remind me of so much about them."

Ah, hell. Coded notes would have to wait. I would suck it up for a few minutes and let her get some of it out. _I will not be an insensitive prick_, I chanted to myself. Yeah, I was on the clock right now, but the mushy pansy in me wanted to be the sensitive type that listened to her feelings. That and being impatient with her while she was in this state would probably do more harm than help. The hell. I went for lightly mushy. "What stuff is there?"

She nodded and picked up the book she'd touched. "Dad left a couple of fishing books here once, and I never managed to return them. Always slipped my mind." She sniffled, but I didn't see any tears yet.

She picked up a misshapen lump of clay, something that could have been a cup or vase, if not for the sagging side. "Mom's failed pottery attempt. Flowers never survived in it. They always bent and died." Ah, so I was right. Well, Renee could get an A for effort at least. She sniffed again and swiped her fingers under her eyes quickly, checking for tears. "Anyway, did you need something? What did you find in the file?"

I frowned. "Some pictures and your dad's notes."

"Yeah? Great! Anything good, anything helpful?"

She looked so hopeful that I didn't want to burst the bubble. "Uh, hell if I know. They're in some kind of code."

She looked befuddled for a moment like I'd gone crazy, before realization dawned in her eyes. "Oh, yeah. I totally forgot Dad liked to do that when he needed to write stuff out that he didn't want others to know about. He liked things simple usually, but he used a code for some stuff."

A ray of hope cracked through. "Okay, I get that. Do you know how to read that code? What kind of language or whatever it is?"

"I know what it is, but I can't read it. I have a book to translate it, though," she replied, scooting off the bed. "Besides the romantic classics stuff I loved, I also enjoyed _The Lord of the Rings_ trilogy when I was in college, and I became fascinated with the languages." I followed her out of the bedroom and down the hall to the living room while she spoke. "I bought a book that explained the different languages used, and old alphabets from which he based some of them." She bent down and scanned the shelves of a bookcase, using her finger as a guide. "Dad found one simple enough for him to learn and use, but one that no one who didn't know better could break. Hmm." She frowned slightly, scanning the shelves again.

"What?"

"It's not here. Dad must've borrowed it."

"Meaning?"

She turned to me, and her eyes were heavy the sadness and grief again. "It's at my parents' house. If you want to crack that code, we have to go to the place they died."

~*~

She didn't want to go. Who wants to go to the scene where your parents died, where you watched them die? Watching it happen was horrific enough, but revisiting, seeing the destruction and everything that had been affected as a result and remembering, that was just torture. The scene of my parents' deaths had been erased hours after the accident when the area had been cleared by the police for clean up, but I still had a hard time being near that intersection, going through it. I avoided it when possible, especially at night.

She had to go though, had told me as much when I said it could wait, so that we could hopefully break the code and find out whatever we could to put her parents' killers away for a long time. I admired her strength and hoped that I could help her stand it if it got too tough. I suggested maybe Emmett should go, or maybe even Jake since he was a close family friend.

"No, I can handle it. No sense in taking the extra time to wait for them to get there, then call me and wait for me to describe it, then wait longer while they stare right at it and still not know where it is," she said wryly. "I love my brother, and I love Jake, but it would be quicker going ourselves. Besides, I can't avoid the place forever. That kind of denial… that's our family home. It wouldn't be right to ignore it forever. Sure, it'll suck to go today, but life goes on, yeah? Confront the pain or it won't go away or some nonsense like that."

"There's a fine line between confrontation and masochism, Bella."

She leaned up and brushed her lips across my cheek. The electricity between us when we touched tingled through me. Would I ever get used to it? I hoped not. "I know. It's been long enough since I've been there, and really, Emmett and I would have to go back to pack their stuff up eventually anyway, so I might as well be prepared for that."

Bella didn't complain when I handed her the standard vest that I made her wear every time we left the house, nor did she protest when I told her I'd drive us there. She gave me the address, and I plugged into my GPS. It shouldn't have been hard to find the house in a tiny place like Forks, but I hadn't been there enough since high school to remember every street and turn.

When the GPS ran out of directions to spit out, we ended up in front of a modest two-story house. The white paint on the front was smudged with smoke, and a giant plywood board was nailed across what I assumed used to be a picture window on the first story. The two windows on the second story were boarded up as well, and scorch marks ruined some of the shingles on the porch roof and the grass of the front yard.

I looked to Bella to see how she was holding up. Tears were in her eyes, and she was breathing heavily through her mouth as she stared at the damaged front of the house. The door had managed to stay in one piece, though it sported its own black burn marks.

"Bella, we don't have to do this. It's too painful. We'll figure it out. We can look it up online or something, okay?" I assured her gently, grabbing her hand with mine.

She shook her head, gripping my fingers like a vise. "No. I can do this; it's fine. I'd have to come back sometime, and this is important. So we do it now." She let go of my hand and pushed herself? out of the car. I turned the engine off and got out slowly. She stood in front of the car and surveyed the damage. I could still smell the slight tinge of burnt wood and paint in the moist Washington air.

Bella seemed to gather herself and began walking towards the empty house, her stride gaining confidence as she went. I caught up to her as she reached the front door and waited while she pulled the key from her pocket and slid it into the lock. Taking another breath to bolster herself, she pushed the door open. The air was stale, the burnt smell a little stronger than on the outside. She flipped a switch, and the small entranceway was illuminated. It was small but clean, and to the right was a doorway that led into the living room. Faint rays of weak light leaked from the edges of the plywood nailed on the outside, offering little illumination. Bella flipped on another switch just inside that doorway, and lamps flickered to life next to an old recliner and behind a stand that held the TV.

The couch had been a victim of the explosion as well, the top of the back singed and torn from the flames and glass that had assaulted it when the window against it had shattered. The edges of the windowsills were blackened a little as well, the faded yellow of the walls untouched by destruction. An empty curtain rod hung above the barren frame, the only evidence of curtains that hadn't survived. There weren't any visible pebbles of glass anywhere, leading me to believe that someone had cleaned it up. I wasn't sure if Bella and/or Emmett had done it, or if it had been charitably done by the police to spare them the horrifying task.

I looked to Bella for the next move, wondering if this was where the book we needed was kept. She was looking at the worn recliner in the corner opposite the couch, facing the television, her eyes filling with tears again. This must have been the Chief's chair, her father's place to sit and unwind after keeping Forks safe every day. My heart shared her grief, knowing what she was going through. Going home after a tragedy so violent was extremely tough, more so when it was the very scene of the tragedy. I reached out and touched her fingers briefly, and her fingers wound around mine again, trembling with the emotion she was trying to keep in check.

"Dad used to sit there every evening and watch sports. There was always something on, one sporting season or another," she said quietly, using her free hand to rub under her eyes for moisture that had spilled over. She let go of my hand and walked over to the bookshelf next to the TV stand, scanning each shelf from top to bottom before selecting a red and black book from the second shelf. "Here it is." She flipped it open to a dog-eared page and turned it so I could see. The familiar pointy shapes were the same as in the file, this time with corresponding letters beneath them.

"Yep, that's exactly what your dad used," I agreed. I took the book from her and tucked it into my back pocket. I laid my hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes, still shining with tears she fought not to shed. "I'm so proud of you for coming here and going through this shit to get the book. This had to be the hardest thing you've ever had to do in your life, and it proves that you're so fucking strong, Bella. Remember that, okay? You're a survivor, and you're not alone."

I cupped her face in my hands as her eyes closed and the tears flowed. I placed a lingering kiss on her forehead before gathering her to me and letting her cry out the pain.

~*~

Once she had cried herself out and apologized profusely for falling to pieces–which I told her to cut the fuck out because she had every right to be upset—she took one last look at the living room before declaring it was time to go. I thought she might want to see a couple of other rooms and venture further down memory lane since she seemed to be in the reminiscing mood, but perhaps seeing the living room was taxing enough for one day. I mean, finding the file was a big deal enough, but having to come to the shell that housed her family must have put her at her limit.

I kept my arm around her as she turned the lights off with one last glance around the room, and waited patiently while she relocked the front door. Taking her hand, we walked in silence back to the car, Bella now clutching the book in her free hand after I handed it to her. I helped her into the car before sliding into the driver's seat and heading back to Port Angeles. She didn't look back at the house as we pulled away, but I had a feeling she didn't need to, that the memory was forever etched in her mind.

"Do you need me to help you decode the notes in the file when we get back?" she asked quietly. She was flipping through the book, looking at pages that had other weird shapes on them, other foreign alphabets made up of curlicues and dots and lines.

"No, you don't have to. Work on your book some more," I replied, giving her a small smile. She tried to return it, but it didn't have much sincerity behind it. "Seriously, I can work on that, have Jasper take a look when he wakes up later. I don't want you to worry about it."

"Edward, of course I'm going to worry about it," she said, exasperated. "This is the file that Pete's been practically stalking me about, the file you refuse to let me tell him about so he'll leave me alone. This is the file that _got my parents killed_. If you won't let me help, will you at least keep me updated? Or you can work on it in the dining room, and I'll work in there too so I can keep up with what you find out." She ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "I can't just be left out of the loop on this. There's too much riding on what's in that folder for me not to worry."

I held up my hands while we waited at a stoplight in downtown Forks. "Fine. I'll work on it and let you know what's going on when I figure it out. I wasn't trying to discount your feelings on it. I just didn't want to add to your stress."

"Too late," she muttered. "It's already been added to; there's no sense in trying to pretend it's not there."

We spent the rest of the ride back to her house in silence, both of us lost in our own thoughts. I couldn't say where her mind was specifically, but I thought it was with her parents, back at her house. Maybe she was thinking about the file, or maybe about why she was the target of the Francis family. My mind was thinking back to my parents. I wasn't thinking about the accident specifically. I was thinking about the Seattle Symphony concert before, about my mother sitting with me at the piano as I played as a child. My dad letting me play with his stethoscope, listening to the muffled thump-thump of his heart underneath the circle placed on his chest.

I thought about high school graduation, how they missed out on my first girlfriend, my fucking stellar report cards, my acceptance to college. Carlisle and Esme were as good a pair of people you could ever want for your parents, but they weren't _my_ parents. They weren't the flesh and blood that had raised me from birth, wanting and hoping and dreaming like Edward Sr. and Elizabeth Masen had. It's not that I didn't love Carlisle and Esme, or that I wasn't grateful for all they'd done for me and Alice, but I had a love for them more like one would for an aunt and uncle, not parents.

We made it back to Bella's house without incident, and I was thankful because I'd let myself get distracted on the way back. I could usually put the memories in a compartment in my head and focus, but seeing Bella's pain and how it paralleled my own made it difficult this time.

When I pulled into the driveway and saw an unfamiliar car in the driveway, I held a hand out to stop Bella when she reached for the handle to get out. "Do you know that car?" I asked her, slipping back into guard mode.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, it's Carlie's car. She sometimes pops in for a visit once in a while. I'm glad she came by. Meaningless girl talk is just what I need right now." She snickered.

I nodded, and she left the car, letting us into the house. I heard a sniffling sound, like someone was crying, and Bella looked confused as we entered the kitchen. Carlie was sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, wearing jeans and a UDub hoodie, her black hair in a messy pile on her head, her eyes wet and red. She dabbed a crumpled tissue under her eyes and jumped up when she saw Bella. Jasper was sitting in the stool beside her, looking tired and disheveled in an old gray t-shirt and flannel pants.

"Carlie, what's wrong? What happened?" Bella asked, instantly concerned by her friend's behavior.

"It's Jake," Carlie replied, her breath hitching as the tears got ready to fall. Bella gasped and looked anxious.

"What about him?" Bella's impatience was starting to show as Carlie tried to compose herself to finish what she was trying to say. I laid a hand on her shoulder to help center her before she made Carlie cry harder and we'd never find out what was wrong.

"Bella, I think Jake is cheating on me!"

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**Never fear, it's not what you think. ;) All in good time, lovelies, which I hope won't be forever like this update.**

**I'm on Twitter, like everyone else in the free world. You can catch me at KnittingVamp7 on thur, too, though I can't guarantee I'll be as exciting as other authors. **

**If you're interested, the code Charlie uses and the book Bella had that he got it from actually exist. It's the runes alphabet from Britain, and I use it myself for some things I don't want people reading. The book is called **_**The Languages of Tolkien's Middle Earth**_**, by Ruth S. Noel.**

**Have you ever forgotten your mom's birthday? And what color would 'surprised' be?**


	11. I Stand Corrected

**Some of you have forgotten your mother's birthdays; some of your mothers have forgotten your birthdays. My mother has forgotten mine once, but I've never forgotten hers.**

**The colors of surprised ended up a rainbow from the responses.**

**Many thanks to Feisty Y. Beden for being an awesome beta and holding my hand.**

**The **_**Twilight**_** bits aren't mine, but this story is. Carry on; the real A/N is at the bottom.

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**

("I Stand Corrected"- Vampire Weekend)

"Cheating on you?" I asked, trying to focus on what Carlie was saying. It was hard to switch gears from visiting my parents' house and dealing with the grief, to listening to my best friend's girlfriend, who was also a dear friend to me, accuse him of cheating on her. "What makes you think he's cheating on you?"

I couldn't believe Jacob would cheat on Carlie. Sure, Jacob had dated his fair share of girls through high school and college, but he never cheated on them. When he found Carlie, he was like a man reborn. He never looked at another girl when he was in public. When Carlie was around, he stayed close to her, finding some way to touch her at all times, whether it was a hand on her back to guide her, or their legs touching when they sat next to each other. They _lived_ together, which was something Jake had refused to do with a woman before. She was it for him, he'd told me, and I believed that.

"He's almost never home anymore, and when I ask him what's keeping him, he just says work," she sniffed, wiping away tears trailing down her face. "He works on airplanes, for God's sake—what could there possibly be that keeps him all hours? He even gets called into work on the weekends, once in the middle of the night for some emergency repair. Are there no other mechanics to fix the damn planes?" She was getting a little hysterical now, her voice rising in anger.

Without a word, Jasper slipped from the stool next to her and disappeared into the hall, presumably to go back to bed. Edward quietly waved the book at me and went into the dining room to work on decoding my father's notes. I longed to be with him so I'd know the second he figured something out, but I couldn't just ditch Carlie in her time of need.

"Maybe he's working on a certain thing and he's the only one who knows how?" I asked, knowing this was more than likely not the case. I'd never heard of mechanics getting called into work either, but maybe Jake's garage was different. "Don't they work on private planes and stuff there, too? Maybe they needed his help because he fixed something before and needs to do emergency 'surgery' on it?"

She gave me a scathing look, nothing less than I expected. At least she wasn't crying anymore. I never knew what to do when people cried, and it always felt contrived when I tried to do the "hug and shush" thing people did to console others. If they were in pain, let them fucking cry—quit shushing them. _Awesome. I seemed to have inherited Edward's dirty mouth_.

"Bella, Jake told me himself that all engines are basically the same, and what you don't know, there're books and online stuff or whatever," she said, pulling me from my thoughts before I could fantasize about Edward's mouth and what it could do. I'd yet to experience _that_ with him, but I could certainly dream.

"Carlie, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, I don't know what Jake's up to, but I can say with certainty that he's not cheating on you," I said calmly, trying not to discount her feelings.

"We haven't had sex in over a month," she blurted suddenly. My eyes widened, and I shook my head, covering my ears.

"Lalalala, I can't hear you talking about my best friend's sex life, lalala," I chanted, watching her fight not to smile at my behavior. While I considered Carlie a friend because she was Jake's girlfriend, I did not think we were close enough for us to be comfortable sharing the intimate details of their relationship. Even though I wasn't much more comfortable hearing Jake say anything about his and Carlie's sex life, it didn't feel as awkward. He also only made comments about it to annoy me, but never got into any gory details.

Carlie pulled my hands away from my ears, and I looked at her warily, arms at the ready to react if she insisted on telling me what I didn't want to hear. "I'm just saying, we've never gone that long without before and if he's not… you know… with _me_, then he must be getting it somewhere else."

I tried not to cringe at the thought of Jake doing… you know… with anyone, especially not Carlie. "Ok, Carlie. Let me just say something. I know it probably doesn't help much, but I've known Jake since we were kids, like, little kids. I know that he doesn't get involved in anything unless he really cares, and I know he's dated girls before. I can honestly tell you that you are the woman for him. I have never seen him treat another girl as well as he's treated you, never cared so much for someone as I've seen him care about you. He wouldn't fuck this up over some random chick and sideline sexy times. I honestly believe that whatever he is doing that is taking time away from your relationship is nothing as heinous or devious as you're thinking. I'm sure he has his reasons for whatever and things will go back to normal very soon. Just trust Jake."

"I do trust him," she said, slumping onto the counter. "I trust him with my life, and I love him. I don't know why I'm being so silly and thinking that whatever the hell he's doing has to somehow be the worst-case scenario. Drama queen much, Carlie?"

I chuckled. "Don't worry. I know it's gotta be tough to have a great relationship and then something changes, and you can't help but fear the worst. Just trust your gut about Jake. Is it telling you he'd do something like that?"

She shook her head. "No. I overreacted. I'm so sorry to have come here and bothered you about it, Bella." She looked abashed. "I feel really stupid."

"Don't worry," I told her. "I won't tell Jake, but I think you should talk to him yourself about all of this."

She nodded. We were both quiet for a minute, the only sounds the clock ticking away on the wall and Edward shuffling papers around in the dining room as he sat surrounded by surveillance equipment. I glanced to see how he was doing, but I couldn't really tell if he was making headway. He had a frown line between his eyebrows, and his jaw was tense as he consulted the book, then my father's notes, scribbling when he figured something out. I _really_ wanted to see how he was doing, but I didn't want to pique Carlie's interest and have to come up with an explanation. I also _really_ wanted to go kiss him senseless and make him smile, but that would require even more explanation to Carlie, and I wasn't ready to start a romance rumor mill.

"Who is he?" Carlie whispered. I looked at her, and her gaze was on the dining room, too. "He's really cute. And that other guy, who was he? He was cute, too, and he was sleepy when he answered the door… and went back to your spare room." Her eyes widened, and her face broke into a wide smile, her romance woes forgotten. "Isabella Swan, what is going on? You have two handsome men in the house, all that equipment, and at least one of those men sleep here, and I'm guessing the other one does, too. _Spill_."

I bit my lip, unsure what to tell her. I'd never thought to ask Edward or Jasper what to say if anyone asked why I had strange men in my house, driving me around, sticking to me like white on rice in public. How the hell was I supposed to explain them and all of their equipment in my dining room? I didn't think I'd have to worry about that aspect, since the only person that really came over was Jake, and Carlie didn't usually accompany him because she was working when he visited. I'd never had to worry about coming up with stories.

_All right, Bella,_ I told myself, using my stern voice, _you have to come up with something. You want to write stories? Come up with something now_. "Um, well, that's Edward, and the other guy is Jasper." At the mention of his name Edward looked up, and I used my eyes to plead with him to help. "They're here… well… um…"

"Paranormal activity," Edward interjected, stepping into the kitchen and offering his hand to Carlie. "I'm Edward, and my colleague Jasper and I are here because we'd heard there was paranormal activity around this house."

Carlie shook his hand, looking confused. "Like ghosts?"

Edward turned on the charm and gave her his crooked grin. I worked to keep my breathing even. He was so goddamn gorgeous, and I was pathetic to let a smile not even directed at me send me into palpitations. "Yes, ghosts, spirits, what have you. There had been reports of mysterious happenings being reported in this area of Port Angeles, and we tracked the origins to Miss Swan's house, especially in the woods out back. She was gracious enough to let us stay here and keep twenty-four hour watch for something."

"Ohhh." Carlie looked like she bought every word he said, and I tried not to giggle at her face. Edward's charm almost had her drooling. "That's really nice of you, Bella." She looked at me, and her voice was almost dreamy. She hadn't let go of Edward's hand yet, either.

"Yeah, that's me, Nice Bella," I replied, trying not to turn into Jealous Bella. We hadn't declared any sort of commitment, but I assumed since we'd gotten intimately acquainted the other night I had a little right to be jealous.

"Oh!" Carlie exclaimed, letting go of Edward's hand. _Finally_. "Haha, that's pretty funny that you have ghost hunters here and it's so close to Halloween! It's almost something out of a movie. That's pretty awesome."

I smiled, but inwardly I was calculating what month it was. Had Edward and Jasper really been here for two months already? No way could it be almost Halloween. The school year had just started, hadn't it?

"Anyway, thanks for putting up with me, Bella," she said, giving me a quick hug. "I feel so silly for overreacting."

"No problem, Carlie. Just talk to Jake. I'm sure he has an explanation for what's going on." I followed her to the door and waved goodbye as she slid into her car and backed out of the driveway. I took a look around my front yard, noticing the trees around the houses across the street were turning colors, leaves scattered across the grass.

I turned and walked to the living room, gazing at the trees through the windows overlooking the backyard. Their leaves were changing as well, and I couldn't help the pang of sadness at how quickly time had passed since my parents died. Thanksgiving was practically around the corner and Christmas right after, the first without them. I bit my lip and rubbed at the pain in my chest at the thought. I felt a hand on my shoulder, the telltale electricity of Edward's touch bringing me from my thoughts.

"Everything okay?" he asked quietly, green eyes intent on mine.

I nodded. "I didn't realize what month it was. The past couple of months have been a blur, and the upcoming holidays have me a bit sad." I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. "Not having them and the stress of worrying about why the hell I have someone trying to kill me is really starting to get to me, too. I can't go anywhere without you or Jasper now, bundled in a bulletproof vest because I could get shot, always looking over my shoulder. It fucking _sucks_! I just want my life back. It wasn't all that exciting before, but damn it, it was _mine_." The anger swelled and died, leaving me weary.

"I know," he murmured, drawing me in to his arms. "I know it sucks, and I know it's frustrating and scary. I wish we could find out everything faster so you wouldn't have to worry anymore. This is no life for anyone, and you shouldn't have to live it."

"Did you find anything at all while I was busy with Carlie?" I asked, my voice muffled by his shirt.

"Not much. Just the basics: the Francises, what they're dealing, which is pretty common knowledge anyway," he said, sighing himself. "There was a word, a name maybe, that begins with a 'V' and has a 't' and 'u,' but I didn't get through the whole thing yet. Breaking that code, even with the book, is mind numbingly tedious, and I didn't get far. I am not a private investigator who breaks codes and uses a magnifying glass to solve the case, and this just proves that I'd hate the job if I were. I, ah, was also sort of eavesdropping on you and Carlie, so the going was slow."

I lifted my head and stared at him. "Eavesdropping? It was that boring you decided listening to girl drama was more exciting?"

"Yes?" He had the sense to look a little sheepish. "Look, you and I are both wondering what's up with Jake. He's an airplane mechanic, which isn't exactly a high-paying job, and yet he can afford Jasper and me for an undetermined amount of time? We're not cheap, Bella. We're good at what we do, and people pay mad money for our services. Jasper tried to look him up, but everything you know is legit, and nothing pops that would point to how he's doing it. I didn't know if she'd say something to help solve that mystery."

"Did she?"

"No, so now all I know Jake isn't home much and he and Carlie don't bump uglies like they used to," he grimaced.

I laughed and felt a little better at his discomfort. "I certainly didn't need that information either. I'm sorry the code is boring. I'm surprised my dad even used code as simple and straightforward as he was, but he said it made him feel better about some of the more sensitive info he came across knowing it wasn't easily accessible if anyone tried to read his notes. Would you like my help?"

He shook his head. "No, maybe Jasper can take a look when he gets up, find a program to help the process. My eyes can't handle any more, and you've had a stressful enough day. It'll all be there tomorrow." He ran a hand down my hair and stepped away to neaten the papers from the file and place them back into the folder.

He had a point, but that didn't stop me from wanting to keep going. I just wanted to get this nightmare over with. I sighed and sat down on the couch, flipping on the TV.

_The sooner they find out who's after you, the sooner they'll leave. What will happen to you and Edward?_ I didn't want to think about that right now. It gave me a feeling I wasn't ready to face and give a name to.

~*~

October finished in a blur of orange and black decorations, blustery winds carrying a chill, and an eagerness of those looking forward to the Thanksgiving break that was three weeks away. The students were hitting the point in the semester where they were just going through the motions and trying not to fall behind so the end wasn't a flurry of procrastination.

Edward and Jasper had figured out more of the contents of the file, while I was still feeding Pete the line that I hadn't even found it yet. I wasn't the world's best liar, but I managed to convince Pete of my cluelessness about the file.

The 'V' word Edward had partially decoded turned out to be "Volturi." I had no idea what it meant, but when he and Jasper finished decoding it, Edward let loose a string of profanities that rivaled any he'd used around me so far, and the unflappable Jasper pressed his lips together and frowned. Once Edward calmed down, he explained to me that the Volturi was in the business like Leonard Francis, only he was small time in comparison. Anybody in the criminal justice and security world knew who the Volturi were, and Edward and Jasper had actually guarded another client who had been targeted by a different arm of the family.

The Volturi, he explained, consisted of three brothers based in Italy who dealt in everything from drugs to blood diamonds. They had families working for them all over the world, and Edward and Jasper figured the Francis family was one of them. They still hadn't decoded the rest of the file, Jasper having had no luck finding a program to help the process, so they didn't know why they would be dealing out of Podunk, Washington.

There was another minor scare on Halloween, someone tripping the sensors in the woods. We watched on the cameras to see if the two men from before were trying their luck again, but it turned out to be a couple of drunk teens in costumes thinking to get lucky or scare each other. They wandered off before any disgusting displays could be picked up by the camera.

Edward and I spent more nights together, when the bad dreams plagued us. We realized the comfort we brought to each other and tried preempting the dreams by going to sleep together at bedtime instead of waiting for the other to wake up and show up in bed. It worked sometimes.

We also had more nights like the first bad night in other, more pleasurable ways. We hadn't progressed beyond heavy making out and manual gratification, and I was simultaneously grateful and frustrated at our slow pace. I didn't know if Edward was trying really hard not to blur the lines between the job and a relationship more than we already were, but I wasn't expecting him to quit his career and be with me forever. I understood his struggle, but it didn't stop us from acting on our impulses. We provided each other with a release and comfort that was needed, easing each other so that our old wounds wouldn't consume us. It was nothing more than that.

I hoped my heart could believe that until this was over and he was gone.

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**Okay, I know you all are pissed because this took so long to update. There is a lengthy note in my profile explaining why so I don't have to detail it here. I also update my blog to keep you guys in the know for what's keeping me so long. The link works now. You can also follow me on Twitter (KnittingVamp7) for links to blog updates or teasers.**

**Thank you all so much for your patience. I get new alerts for people who follow this story or favorite it almost daily and I'm touched that you guys stick with me despite my lack of speedy updates. I haven't forgotten any of you, and I hope you can forgive me. The note in my profile explains it all.**

**What's the most mind-numbing thing you've ever done?**


	12. Outtake: Emmett Drabble

**I know this is a short update, and I'm sorry that even this took so long, but I wanted to give you guys a little something to show my appreciation for your patience. I love and appreciate every single alert and review. RL hasn't really gotten much better, but I'm trying to make the best of it. :) Thanks for sticking with me!  
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** This may be familiar to some of you as I submitted this for 30 Days of Emmett; it takes place before Chapter One and is in Emmett's POV. Thanks to HMonster4, AccioBourbon and TheHeartOfLife for hosting The 30 Days of Emmett, and to my awesome beta, Feisty Y. Beden, for the quick job at the last minute.**

**Song: "Chimeras" by Tim Hecker.**

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I can hear my cell phone ringing in my pocket and I hurry to unlock the door and unload the groceries onto the counter so I can answer it.

I see it's my baby sister calling and smile. "Hey, Bells, what's up?"

I hear a sniffle and a quiet "Emmett?" My heart drops and I turn into Brother Bear, thinking she got hurt somehow.

"What happened, Bella? What's going on? Are you hurt? Do you need me to come get you? Do I need to beat some ass?"

"No," she chokes out and I hear a sob escape through the phone. "No, I'm… I'm fine. Um… Oh God, Emmett, they're gone. They're gone, it's just… Oh God."

Now I'm beginning to panic and get that cold feeling in my belly. "Who's gone, Bells?" I ask quietly, my eyes closed, bracing for the worst.

"Mom and Dad. They're dead, Emmett."

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**If it helps, I do have about half of the next chapter done, and now that I have a new laptop, I have more time to write when I want to, and not when my parent's PC is available. :) **


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